Wolf's Howling
by Copperpelt
Summary: A wolf bite has changed everything for Shun, and has placed him and everyone around him in more danger than you could ever imagine. But a wolf hunt is the least of everyone's worries, because one moon could rip apart everything. suck @ summaries. R&R PLZ
1. Once Bitten

_Shun_

Threat of snowfall lingered in the air so heavily that you could almost see it, even though it wasn't there. It was the last few days of fall, and winter was already nipping at the city. But the cooling weather didn't stop us from enjoying the sunny day that it was. Julie had gotten the idea for us to picnic at the park, and the place she had chosen was next to where the forest started.

She and Runo spread out the blanket that we would sit on, and Murucho was asking them questions about why they were doing this. Apparently he had never gone on a picnic before. _I don't doubt it._ The blanket hadn't been on the ground for more than a few seconds before Dan had already sat down on top of it and made himself comfortable. Runo snapped at him, "Dan! You messed up the blanket!"

He just stuck out his tongue and Runo hit him in his shoulder. He whined, "It's about to get messed up anyway! Geez! Quit being so freaking OCD!" I rolled my eyes and turned to look at the forest that was behind us. Everything about it had been untouched by human hands. It wouldn't have been there if the government hadn't stepped in and stopped the city from leveling it. The part that they had destroyed was what was now the park.

This area of land was originally intended to be a mall or something like that. All kinds of animals were in that forest; birds, deer, foxes, and even reported wolf packs. Which was very uncommon for Bay City. People started to think that maybe a pack had moved from another city and just settled here.

There had been a lot of controversy about the wolves though. People were wanting to run them out of the forest or kill them because they were becoming a threat as they started to get more comfortable with coming into the city. Julie brought me out of my thoughts when she clapped her hands together and said, "Alright! Everything is all set up! Now we can eat!"

I sat down on the blanket between Alice and Dan. It was either there or between Dan and Runo, and to be honest I didn't want to get caught in the crossfire of their dangerous obsession with each other. The cool wind picked up, and I zipped up the light green jacket that I had worn that day.

If I hadn't known any better, I would have thought it was already winter instead of very late fall. That could have only signaled that the city was in for a freezing winter. Dan bit into a sandwich and said with a mouthful of food, "This is great, Runo!" Runo gave him a slightly disgusted look that reflected his manners, but she knew that you couldn't fix stupid.

No matter how hard you tried. She had put up a hell of a fight to try though. Runo and Alice had made the food though from what I was told, and I had to admit it was pretty good for some sandwiches and chips. We finished the food in no time, and were just sitting around and enjoying the fresh air.

Two kids were kicking a ball back and forth to each other not far off from us. I watched as one kicked the ball right into the woods behind us. They both ran up and tried to look through the brush. One of them said, "Do you see it?" The other told him, "No."

A woman, who I assumed was their mother, came running up and asked them what was going on. The kids told her, and she craned her neck to see if she could find the ball. When she shook her head at them, I stood up and said, "I'll go and get it." The others looked up at me and Dan whispered something under his breath that sounded like, "Hotshot."

I rolled my eyes and walked from the blanket and towards the woman and two kids. She told me, "You don't have to." I stuck my hands in the pockets of my jacket to keep them warm and said, "Don't worry about it. I'll be in there and out in no time."

The woman thought for a moment then said, "Alright. But watch yourself in there." I nodded my head, and found an opening in the brush. Easily I fit in and looked around. Dying plants were thick, and dried out briars were already hooking to my pant legs. I easily found the ball against the late fall background of the woods.

It was in front of another wall of underbrush that had seemed to have stopped it from going any further into the woods. I stepped over a few plants, and reached out for the ball when two green eyes flashed open from the underbrush in front of me.

_Alice_

I thought it was very generous of Shun to help out those kids, so I didn't remark or anything like the others had. I just kept my mouth shut and ate on a chip while I watched Shun disappear in the woods. He did need to be careful in there though. There was no telling what all could be in that forest.

There probably wasn't much since it was close to a place that was very active with people. Then again, that hadn't stopped any of the wolves lately. Recently, and old lady had looked outside her house and found a wolf walking the street in front of it.

What was really shocking though, was that the woods were a good mile or two away from her home. The peaceful silence of the forest was broken by a cry from Shun, and followed by growls. Next thing we saw was Shun tumble out of the brush that he had gone through, and scramble back.

Naturally, we all jumped up and started to run over to him. That is, until we saw why Shun had yelling in the first place. A large gray colored wolf jumped out from the brush as well; teeth bared and eyes fixed on Shun.

Dan made a movement that caught my eye, and I saw that he had found a branch that had broken off from a tree. He started swinging the branch at the animal, and every time he did the wolf flinched back. Finally, it ran back into the woods that were next to us.

The woman and her kids had apparently ran off when the animal jumped out. We probably would have done the same if it hadn't been one of our friends in trouble. When everything settled down on us, we remembered Shun and ran to his side. He was still sitting on the ground from where he fell back, and I noticed that he was clutching his right arm.

I knelt beside him and told him, "Show me your arm." He reluctantly removed his hand, and revealed his jacket had been torn and bloodstained. I heard Dan say behind me, "We need to get him to an emergency room." He was right. The wound on Shun's arm would most likely need stitches, and he himself would definitely need shots in case that wolf had any kind of diseases.

Shun went back to clutching his arm. He had to have been in a ton of pain, because I had never seen him like this. Dan helped Shun up to his feet, and we made our way back to the limo and Kato, which had both brought us here. I saw Kato sitting on a bench reading a book.

He then glanced up and saw Shun. "What happened?" Already he had shut the book he was reading and heading towards the limo to get it started. I looked back down at Shun's arm. His left hand was still clutching the wound tightly, but blood had turned the light green jacket sleeve into a dark red and brown.

Murucho had scooped up the blanket that we sat on and handed it to me. He said, "Have Shun wrap this around his arm. It won't do much, but it might help with the bleeding." I nodded my head and took the blanket. Shun had apparently heard what Murucho said, and practically wrapped the blanket around his arm himself.

Lucky for us, the hospital was fairly close to the park. Not much more than a five minute drive. Maybe three if Kato went over the speed limit. Which he did. The blanket slipped off of Shun's arm when we stepped out of the limo, but we didn't stop to pick it up. We left it there and helped hurry Shun into the emergency room that we had parked in front of.

A nurse at a desk saw us walk in, then looked down at Shun's blood soaked jacket sleeve. She quickly picked up the phone, and said something into it before setting it back down and running over to us. "What happened to him?" Murucho started going into detail, and a few more nurses showed up.

They were probably who she had called when we showed up. One of them told us to follow her, and she led us to a waiting room while she and another nurse took Shun to be treated. I had a good feeling that Shun would be fine.

The hospital had treated dog bite victims before, so this couldn't be much different, right? Well, it was different in one way; this was the first wolf victim in Bay City. I couldn't help but think that this would cause a lot of stir in the city now. People already wanted the wolves exterminated, and now they might have a reason to back their argument other than just because one showed up in their front yard.

We waited for an hour or so in the same room that the nurse dropped us off in, and we spent all of that time listening to Dan complain about the smell. The nurse then showed back up and said, "He's in the third room on the left." She then vanished. We all walked down the hall and counted the rooms and found the one that the nurse had told us that Shun was in.

The door was wide open, and showed us Shun sitting on one of those examining tables. They weren't planning on keeping him overnight if they placed him in a regular check-up room. His jacket was gone, and most likely thrown away since it was ruined. His arm was wrapped tightly in white bandages, and it looked like if he moved the slightest bit they would break.

We all stepped into the room, which was now fairly cramped with six people in it now. Murucho asked, "So what did they do to you, Shun?" Shun lifted up his arm and said, "They gave me I think about sixty stitches, antibiotics, and some pain killers that are strong enough that you could stab me and I won't feel a thing."

I could hear by his speech that whatever they gave him was making him drowsy, and his eyes were also starting to droop a little. Dan asked, "Are they making you stay here?" Shun shook his head slowly and said, "No. They're fixing my sign-out papers right now."

An older man pushed his way through us and into the room, and was holding a chart. I figured that this was the doctor that Shun had been assigned to. He handed Shun a small sheet of paper and said, "This is a prescription for some antibiotics that I want you to stay on just for a precautionary measure. Other than that, you're free to go home."

Shun took the paper and folded it in half. I could see right now that whatever medicine that was making him tired, was about to put him out. We all thanked to doctor for his time, and quickly got Shun back out to the limo before he passed out on us, but he did drift off during the drive back to Murucho's.

It was almost impossible for us to wake him back up when we did get back to Murucho's mansion, but we finally did get him up and inside. Sleepily, he went on up to the guest room he was staying in. Murucho called to the rest of us from another room, "Guys, come on in here."

We did as he asked, and saw him pointing to the TV. A woman was talking about a wolf attack victim. Dan said, "Looks like Shun's already made the news." Runo hushed Dan and we listened more carefully to what the report was saying.

The woman said into her microphone, "With the first wolf attack victim in Bay City, there is now even more of a push to try and do something about the wolf packs that reside in the woods near the park." The woman went and interviewed several people around the park, and asked for their input on this.

One middle aged looking woman said into the microphone, "This just proves that those animals need to go. What's going to stop them from attacking somebody's kid now? We need to get rid of them before they get anymore out of hand." I shook my head.

Even though I agreed that something needed to be done about them, I didn't agree with the methods that people were proposing; aerial shootings, poison, and hunts for them.

There were so many other ways that this could be handled that didn't involve doing anything that was being offered by the public. I didn't want to watch the TV any longer, and I walked over to the window and looked outside. The sunny sky had clouded over, and snow started to fall.

* * *

><p>and the grande return of me after another day. ^^ the never ending roll that i'm on with never cease. (at least it seems this way) i actually woke up at like 6 this morning. i think i'm still under the effects of that Monster i drank. o.o -yawns- well, read, review, and other things. ^^ ~Copperpelt~<p> 


	2. The Catalyst And Reaction

_Shun_

The only reason I opened my eyes that morning was because sunlight was filtering through the window and beating down on my face. If it wasn't for that, I would have just stayed asleep for another hour or so. In an attempt to escape the harsh light, I rolled over onto my side to face away from it.

I also buried my face into my pillow. Along with my arm, which was burning with pain, I also didn't feel well. My whole body radiated with a burning pain, but overall my arm was what hurt the most. I shut my eyes and tried to fall back to sleep, but every time I closed them and image of that wolf kept flashing up.

All I could really remember seeing at first were the white flash of its teeth, and then its eyes once it bit down on my arm. The eyes were what caught me off guard the most. They didn't look quite right. Like a cross of human and animal, but I attributed it that to the fear that I was feeling when I was being attacked.

I brought my knees up and was curled in on myself, thinking that it would help the pain that was going through every inch of me. It felt like that deep pain that you'd have when you'd get the flu, except slightly more intolerable. But I shouldn't be getting sick.

The doctor at the emergency room last night had given me a strong dose of antibiotics to stop any kind of infection of forming. Maybe it was a side effect from the antibiotics. I knew that some medicine was painful, but on this level I wasn't so sure about. It almost felt like my body was changing, but that even sounded ridiculous to myself.

I kept telling myself that I was just getting sick, and that the antibiotics were failing me somehow. That was the only logical and rational explanation that anyone could think of. Chills started to set in on me, and I brought my blanket up to my chin to try and get warm.

The ache in my arm only seemed to get worse and worse every minute, and I wished at that moment that the doctor had sent me back to home with the pain killers than the antibiotics. I opened my eyes and when I did the room started to spin. What was happening?

The flu didn't do things like this, right? I shut my eyes tightly and opened them back up, but the room kept spinning. My heart then started to speed up in my chest, and sweat started to form on my forehead as if I had been running for hours without a break.

What if this was an allergic reaction to the medicine I was given? The room around me slowed down its spinning, but it started to fade from away from me.

_Alice_

I walked out of my room that morning and followed the scent of food coming from downstairs. I hadn't even bothered to change out of my pajamas; food had won over the desire to look presentable. Besides, the only ones eating were all my friends, and knowing Dan he was probably still in the clothes he slept in as well.

When I walked into the dining hall, I saw Dan, Runo, Julie, and Murucho all sitting down and enjoying their food. I scanned the room and searched for Shun. He wasn't anywhere that I could see. I walked over to a chair next to Runo and asked, "Is Shun still asleep?"

Dan shrugged his shoulders and said, "I guess so." Murucho added himself into the conversation by saying, "None of us have seen him since we got back from the hospital yesterday." Kato came walking by and refilled the little bit of orange juice I had already drank. I thanked him and he bowed before circling the table once more to see if anyone needed anything else.

When he saw everyone was fine, he walked off into another room. I said, "Maybe we should check in on Shun after we finish eating." Murucho wiped his hands on a napkin and said, "That might be a good idea. He wasn't looking all too well yesterday."

It was true, but I thought it might have been from the shock of the wolf bite mixed in with the drowsing effects of whatever medicine the nurses gave to him. Dan was the last to finish eating, but it was his second plate of food as well. The rest of us had just eaten one, and not even all of us had finished what was on them.

Dan leaned back in his chair and said, "Hey, Alice. How about you be the one who goes up there to check in on Shun?" He was looking at me with one eye open and one closed, and his fingers were intertwined with one another behind his head. "Me? Why me?" It wasn't like I didn't mind going up there to check on Shun.

I mean, he was still my friend and I was concerned about him, but I wanted to know why Dan instantly sought me out of the others. He gave me my answer, "Well, Shun won't get pissed at you if you're the one waking him up or whatever. He'll get mad if it were anyone else."

I light blush crossed my face. Shun had always treated me different from the others. Not in a bad way, but more in a special way. I said, "Alright, I'll go and check on him." I walked upstairs and down the hall. The only ones who stayed on this hall were Shun and Julie, but their rooms were a very good distance apart from each other.

Shun's room was almost at the very end, while Julie's was right there when you walked into the hall. I knocked on the door with the back of my hand and said, "Shun? You awake?" I pressed my ear against the door to hear if he said anything, but didn't hear a response. _I at least hope he's decent._

The last thing I wanted was to walk into the room when he was changing. I'd probably die from embarrassment before I could even explain what I was doing. I turned the doorknob and poked my head inside of the room. In the far left corner was Shun's bed, with him still laying in it.

Quietly, I walked up to him and shook his shoulder. "Shun. Get up." He moved, but didn't wake. That's when I saw that he was paler than his usual skin tone, and his breathing was also labored. I moved my hand from his shoulder and placed the back of it on his forehead. He was burning up.

_But he's on those meds. He shouldn't be sick._ This raised a red flag for me. What if something was seriously wrong with him? I hurried out of his room and back downstairs to the others. Runo saw me first and asked, "Was he still sleeping, or was he just avoiding us like usual?"

I could still feel the heat from Shun's fever on the back of my hand. I said, "He was still sleeping, but I think we should take him back to the hospital." Murucho tilted his head to the side and asked, "Why?" Their eyes were fixed on me as was about to explain why Shun needed to go back to the hospital.

"He's sick. Running a fever and everything." Julie then butted in by saying, "But he's on those meds-" I cut her off and said, "That's what I'm getting at. He shouldn't be sick. Something's wrong with him, and he needs help. It could be something serious, and I don't want to take any chances."

The others looked at one another. Murucho nodded his head and said, "You have a point, Alice. Julie and Runo, could you two find Kato and tell him to have the limo ready?" The two girls nodded their heads and ran off into another room to look for the loyal butler.

Murucho turned to Dan and I. "The three of us will get Shun up and ready to go back to the hospital." Dan and I nodded our heads and the three of us headed back up to Shun's room.

_Alice_

It was a hassle to wake Shun up. It took both me and Dan to shake him awake, but we finally succeeded. Shun had turned and looked up at us with glazed over eyes. He said weakly, "Why'd you guys wake me up?" I told him, "We woke you up cause we're taking you back to the hospital."

Dan draped Shun's arm over his shoulder, and helped Shun up to his feet. The raven haired boy asked weakly, "Why am I going back there?" I stared at him in disbelief. Did he really think that it was normal for him to feel like this, or was he really that sick. I said, "Because you're sick, Shun. And you need a doctor."

It took us a few minutes to get down the stairs and outside. Kato was standing in front of the running limo, and when he saw us struggling to hold Shun up he ran over to help us. Dan and I both thanked him, and we finally got Shun in the back of the limo with the rest of us. Either Julie or Runo had grabbed up a blanket, and it was a good thing too because Shun had started to shiver again.

Kato got into the driver's seat and started to swerve around cars with ease. Kato made it look so simple, when really I was sure anyone else would have wrecked their car by now. We had placed Shun against the door, and now he was leaning against the window and sleeping.

I was sitting next to him, and Dan was in the seat across from us. I snuck a glance out of the window. The snowfall from yesterday was still on the ground, but only in little patches. Clouds off in the distance gave a warning of more to come later in the day.

It was so early for the snow to start, but this had been the coldest fall Bay City had seen in a long time. Which only could mean that the winter would be brutal. Before I knew it, we were in front of the hospital. Kato and Dan got Shun out, and carried him through the sliding doors of the emergency room.

Julie, Runo, Murucho, and I followed behind them. The same nurse was behind the desk, and she did the same thing she did yesterday. She picked up the phone in front of her, then ran to help us. At this point, Shun wasn't even standing on his own. Only Kato and Dan were holding him up.

Another nurse came running up to us, and the one who had called said to her, "Go and get a bed." The nurse nodded her head and ran off. She soon came back with one of the emergency room's beds, and Dan and Kato laid Shun down on it without a word. Dan was rubbing his shoulder and said, "He's gotten heavier." The doctor from yesterday came jogging up to us, and waved his hand at the nurses.

They both nodded their heads and wheel the bed off with Shun on it. He asked us, "What's going on?" I walked up to the doctor, and finally got the chance to see his name on the little card. _Winston. Sounds legitimate enough. _I told him, "I went to go and check on him this morning and he wouldn't wake up, and was burning up with a fever."

The doctor raised an eyebrow and said, "The antibiotics shouldn't be allowing this. You all were right to bring him back here." He continued to talk. "We'll run the basic tests and see if anything has changed. He probably just has an infection that slipped past the medicine."

The doctor then walked off and picked up a chart from the nurse's desk when he did. People in the main waiting area of the emergency room were looking at us, and wondering what was going on. A nurse who I hadn't seen before came walking up to us and said, "Come with me to another waiting room."

We nodded our heads and followed her. The room had no people in it, which was a relief to me. It wasn't more than half an hour before the same nurse came back and said, "We've finished all of the tests and you can go and see your friend in his room."

Instead of the check-up room they had Shun in the other day, they had him in an actual room. Against the white blankets, Shun looked even paler than before. He was still asleep, or unconscious. I couldn't tell which. Doctor Winston came in with Shun's chart and said to us, "Could I talk with you all outside?"

We all exchanged looks at one another and went on out of the room with the doctor. Murucho asked, "What did you want to talk about?" He glanced down at the chart and said, "I just got your friend's test results back." I asked quickly, "What do they say?" Worry started to build up in me.

Were the tests bad? Good? I wanted to know. "His white cell count is elevated pretty high, which signals an infection. We just haven't found which one quite yet. The nurses already have him on the strongest antibiotics we have to try and hold this back until we can get him the appropriate treatment. But, there is something you might want to know."

His voice turned grave in the end. All of us were dead silent as we waited to hear what else this doctor had to tell us. It couldn't be good though. It was never good when the doctor added in a 'but' into his news. He then saw that we weren't going to say anything until he told us the rest of his news.

"There's always the possibility of cancer when we find white cells this high. It's highly unlikely that your friend has it though since we saw no signs of it yesterday. Cancer doesn't just appear like this overnight, but there is still always that possibility." I didn't have anything to say.

The idea of Shun having cancer was completely behind my comprehension. I could see it was the same for the others. This was our friend, and the thought of him having something as devastating as this was impossible.

A nurse went into Shun's room behind us, and then came running out and whispered something into the doctor's ear. His eyes widened and he said in a shocked voice, "What do you mean missing?"

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><p>checks out my profile for the cover to this story. i started on it the other day, but it was after i finished the first chapter and couldnt get word out about it. ah, another chapter done though. ^^ thanks for all the reviews so far. read, review, and other things. ~Copperpelt~<p> 


	3. In A Daze

_Alice_

The doctor repeated himself to the nurse again. "What do you mean he's missing?" First instinct made me run past the doctor and back into the room that was Shun's. Sure enough, the blankets were thrown back and the bed was empty. _Just like that nurse said._ The others ran in behind me, and saw the empty room just as I had. I saw that the window had been pushed open.

It seemed like Shun had jumped from the window and ran off, but how could he have found the energy to do that when he couldn't even open his own eyes or talk with us? The doctor snapped at the nurse, "Don't just stand there. We need to find him!" The nurse nodded her head and ran out from the room. It just didn't add up. Shun was extremely sick and weak when we brought him to the hospital.

He wouldn't have been able to get up and push the door open and make a run for it. And even if he had done that, why? What reason did he have to run off? He knew well enough that he wasn't well and needed medical help, so why run off from something that you need? I shook my head as I tried to make sense of this situation.

Had Shun possibly been faking when we brought him here? _No. Not even Shun would do something like that and keep the act up._ I just couldn't find any reasoning to this, and it irked me because of that. I fixed my eyes on Shun's empty bed. How had he found any strength to even get out from it?

The IV lines and wires that had been stuck into his arms were laying loosely from the machines from where he pulled them out. Dan rested his hand on my shoulder and said, "Don't worry about him, Alice. He couldn't have gotten too far. Besides, the nurses have called out for the police to keep an eye out for him and to bring him back if they find him."

I felt a little more calm knowing that at least we were looking for him, and not letting him run around the streets sick and weak. I nodded my head to let Dan know that I understood him. I hoped they would find Shun soon, before worry and concern ate away at me.

I didn't want anymore bad news about Shun tonight. Already I had to deal with hearing that he might have cancer, and now I had to deal with knowing that he was outside in the condition he was. So much could go wrong, and off all the people I was close to, it had to be Shun.

_Shun_

I woke back up and found myself laying on the ground between two buildings. Out of sight from anyone who would pass by. The ground under me was cold and wet from snowfall, and it had dampened my clothes, causing me to become cold. I pushed myself up and sat upright, leaning my back against the brick of one of the two buildings. Confusion flooded my mind. What happened to me?

The last thing I could recall was Alice and the others taking me to the hospital. When they got me to the limo was as far back as I could remember. I had no idea how I had gotten from the hospital or Murucho's mansion, to this alley. I didn't even know where this alley was. I looked around, and saw a landmark that I easily recognized; a statue.

I was right across the street from the park. Why had I gone towards it? The only good thing I could pick out was that I knew where I was now. My eyes fell on the forest that was on the edge of the park, and I felt something inside when I saw it.

A feeling of longing and home were pulling at me. I shook my head to try and shake the feelings away. _You're sicker than you thought._ But I felt fine at the moment other than I slight headache, and the still nagging pain in my arm. I then remembered my arm and looked down to see that the bandages had come off, and revealed the stitches that were underneath them.

They looked like crooked rows of jagged teeth coming from my arm, but I saw that the gashes they were holding together were already healing up, and turning into a pinkish scar. This surprised me. My arm should have still been a torn apart mess from the wolf bite, and nowhere healed like this in a days time.

A shiver racked my body, and reminded me that the air around me was below freezing, and all I had on was a thin shirt and pants that I had fallen asleep in. I also noticed that there were tears in my clothes., as if they had been caught on something and torn. A hollow feeling hit me every time I tried to remember what happened after Alice and Dan woke me up.

I wanted nothing more than to remember what happened. Was I drugged and kidnapped, then dumped here? A million things could have happened to me and I didn't know or remember any of them! A car drove by the street in front of my alley, then came to a halt.

The driver and passenger got out and stopped in front of the alley's entrance. One of them flipped a flashlight on me, and I was blinded until my eyes adjusted. When they finally did come into focus, I saw that they were both policemen. One of the said into the walkie-talkie on his shoulder, "We found the kid who ran off from the hospital. We're bringing him back right now."

There was a click, and a fuzzy voice answered him back. They slowly started to approach me. The one who talked into the walkie-talkie told me in a calm and slow voice, "We're not going to do anything to hurt you, and you're not in trouble. We're just going to take you back to the hospital."

I found it very insulting that they were speaking to me like a child who had gotten separated from his parents in a store. But in their defense, they had no idea how stable I might have been. Heck, even I didn't know if I was stable or not.

I could have lost it and ran off, and ended up right here. Until I was told what happened, I could only speculate what truly happened to me. The two policemen helped me up to my feet, and put me in the back of their car. The drive back to the hospital was a silent one, and the quiet was only broken when the CB radio came on with a blast of fuzzy words on the other end.

The cops didn't say anything about me, or what happened. They just stayed dead silent, keeping their eyes fixed on the road in front of them. I then started to think about what time it was. I snuck a glance at the digital clock on the radio, and saw it was a little after midnight. How long had I been out though?

The last time I remembered was it was morning, and now it was pitch black outside. How many days could I have been out as well. It felt like a portion of my life was erased, and I started to think I wouldn't ever get it back. _Calm down. You're overreacting, Shun._

I could have only been missing an hour or so, and not four days like I was starting to think. I leaned back into the seat and tried to relax myself. _I'm going back to the hospital. Everything's going to be fine. I'm going back to the hospital. Everything's going to be fine. _I kept telling myself this, but somehow it felt like I was lying to myself.

I leaned my head against the tinted window and looked outside. If I knew the others well enough, they would have taken me to the same hospital that I had been in yesterday, and it was also the closest to Murucho's place. But seeing where I was at, I had ran almost halfway across the city from that hospital.

Not even with my ninja training could I cover that much ground that quickly. A car cut us off, and the cops slammed the cars breaks. All of us went forward, and then back as the force returned to us. The one driving growled and said, "Jackass. He's lucky we have to get this kid back to the hospital, or else I'd chase him."

The one next to him and said calmly, "Don't worry. I got the tag number. Just keep on driving." He nodded and went back to going down the street. My heart had sped up from the almost wreck we had, and then my body started to ache like it had when I woke up that morning. I had felt fine till now.

I laid my head back against the window, and shut my eyes closed tightly from the pain. I moved again to try and find a more comfortable position, and since I didn't have my seatbelt on, I fell over on the long backseat of the police car.

The passenger turned around and looked at me before saying to his partner, "I think you better speed it up. Looks like that kid's getting sick again." The driver nodded his head, and I felt an increase in the speed of the car. The pain was the same that I had in the morning when I woke up, and I hoped that I wasn't going to pass out again.

I didn't want to forget anything else that was about to happen to me. I could feel my heart rate slowing down, and the pain slowly started to drain away as my body finally started to calm down from the shock of the car that cut us off. There was still a phantom pain lingering, as if it were threatening and telling me that it was still there and lurking in the shadows.

Feeling fine again, I sat back up and leaned against the door. The driver glanced at me through his rearview mirror and asked me, "Is everything alright back there? Do we need to go faster?" I shook my head slowly and said, "I think I'm fine right now. This speed is fine."

The driver nodded his head, but still sped up slightly. They finally stopped the car at the entrance to the emergency room, and I saw Dan and the others standing outside, their faces sick with worry.

_Alice_

It had been eight hours since Shun vanished from the hospital, and when we got the call saying they found him we were so relieved. Right after the police called us, we had all gone outside and were waiting on the curb for the police car to bring Shun back to us. What kind of condition was he in now? About the same? Worse?

I didn't even care about the cold air nipping at my exposed arms and face. Dan had offered me his red jacket several times, but I turned it down every time. My mind was more set on seeing if Shun was alright than the cold weather. More snow had fallen while we were in the hospital, and it already looked like it was the middle of winter.

The black and white police car parked at the curb and I could just barely make out Shun's silhouette through the tinted glass windows. I saw he was speaking to the police, which meant that he had enough strength to talk, and that he was awake.

Two very good signs in my opinion. Murucho had snuck away to get some nurses and Shun's doctor, and all of them came outside. When they opened the door, Shun's doctor didn't even give him a chance to get out before he was already checking over Shun. The doctor pulled out a small flashlight and stuck it right in Shun's face.

Shun blinked when the light hit him, but I saw he quickly adjusted. With the light on him, I could see that his face was still pale, but it had more color than it had when ran off.

The doctor stood up and said to the nurses, "Get him back in his room and finish an evaluation. I want the tests run again just for good measures." They nodded their heads and took Shun back inside of the hospital. Now the doctor was speaking to the police officers who brought Shun back to us. He asked them, "Where did you find him?" All of our little group got closer to hear what they were talking about.

One of the officer's said, "Across from the park in an alleyway. He looked pretty disoriented and confused, so we took the usual measures and approached him slowly so we wouldn't cause him to panic." The doctor nodded his head and then asked, "How sick was he when you found him?"

The two officers looked at each other before one said, "He seemed fine. A little on he weak and tired side, but he was able to get up and walk. Now halfway here he fell over in the seat and started looking pretty sick, but he sat back up and looked fine again." Doctor Winston nodded his head again and said, "Thank you for your help." The doctor walked off back into the hospital, and we followed him.

I heard one of the officers say, "Ok, now we can find that punk who cut us off." I didn't pay anymore mind to them when I got back in the hospital. As far as I was concerned, I hadn't ever seen those police officers. My mind was still dead set on Shun. I wanted to see him and ask him why he ran off, but I couldn't right at the moment.

Not while the nurses were running tests on him. There were more people in the waiting area of the emergency room than you'd expect at almost one in the morning. Most of them were people who got hurt while being drunk, or kids who got sick during the night.

It wasn't anything like you might have seen on TV. Everything was so quiet and still in the waiting room, and not bustling and loud like on the shows on the Health Channel. We moved from the waiting area to outside of Shun's room. A nurse came out with a chart and vials of Shun's blood to run for tests.

She almost ran into us when she turned around. "Oh! I'm sorry. You all can go inside his room now if that's what you're waiting for." We nodded our heads and she walked around us and into a room that had a keypad and cardkey lock on it. She swiped her card, and walked into the room.

When I squinted my eyes I saw that a plastic sign said _Lab_ in white letters and the translation in Braille underneath. I turned back around and saw the others had gone into Shun's room, and I ran in after them. Shun was sitting upright in his bed, both of his hands resting in his lap.

I saw his right arm, the one that had been bandaged up from the wolf bite. The white bandages were gone, and showed me his arm. It was healing fast. Way too fast. Shun didn't bring it up though, and it seemed like the others weren't going to either. They might hadn't noticed it yet.

Murucho asked Shun, "Why'd you run off from the hospital?" Shun stared at the short blonde and shook his head. His eyes showed that he was bewildered and confused. He said, "I don't remember running off from here. I don't even remember ever getting here this morning."

Shun was truly lost on what was going on, which didn't help us from our standpoint. I asked, "Do you really not remember anything that happened after we woke you up?" Shun shook his head, not taking his eyes from me.

* * *

><p>ah. early finish. oh how i love them. omg. i checked my grades last night and saw that i had a 30 in English and freaked out. so i went to my English teacher and she found out that the school's computers skrewed me over and entered a wrong grade, so now my 30 is a 91. ^^ boy was i happy. XD -wipes sweat from forehead- well, read, review, and other things. ~Copperpelt~<p> 


	4. Cry Wolf

_Shun_

The others couldn't seem to quite understand that I had no clue what was going on. Several times I had to explain that I didn't remember what happened from when they woke me up, to when I found myself in that alleyway. They knew about as much as me though. When I asked them everything that happened, they started to explain up to the point when I supposedly ran from the hospital.

By their description and story, I shouldn't have been able to climb out of the window and run halfway across the city. If I had done that, then it was probably a good thing that my room was on the first floor. Or else I might have hurt myself without ever knowing it. Murucho had told me when they first brought me here in the morning, they had taken some tests.

I asked, "What did they find out?" The test results could have been something of use to me and jog my memory back. A grave look fell over on everyone's faces. I looked at them and let out a short, humorless laugh. "Come on guys, it couldn't have been that bad." Dan started and said, "The doctors think it's just an infection that slipped past the antibiotics. But-" He cut himself off.

By Dan's grim expression, the next words I'd hear wouldn't be good. I had almost wished that I didn't ask what my tests revealed about my health. I was listening intently as I waited for Dan to finish the rest of his sentence. I could see by his face that he wasn't going to though.

Murucho then stepped up and said, "I've got this, Dan." Dan nodded his head and silently thanked Murucho. How bad could this really be? What was so wrong with my tests that it had my friends all emotional about?

Murucho pushed his glasses up and said professionally, "The doctors think that there's a possibility that you might have cancer." At that moment my world slowed down and all I could say was, "What?"

Murucho quickly added in, "But they seriously doubt that you have it. It's just a speculation for now until they can justify whether you do or don't. No need to get too uptight about it right now, Shun." I picked up on the sad tone in his voice.

They actually thought that I had cancer, even though they were trying to tell me that odds were I didn't. It wasn't very helpful knowing that my friends were already assuming that I had a deadly disease. _Thanks guys._ The nurse who about an hour took blood samples from me, walked in the room and said, "Visiting hours are almost over."

I found it odd that their visiting hours were past midnight, but somehow I think they gave my friends some leash since I had just been found a little while ago. The others stayed a few more minutes before finally being run out by the nurses, who kept nagging to them about the hospital's hours.

Once they were gone, a nurse flipped my room's light out and left me in the dark. Now I had a chance to think. I laid back in my bed and stared up at the plain white ceiling, and sighed. _Cancer._ I shook my head to try and get the echoing word out of my mind.

I didn't know really how the disease worked, so there was a possibility that it was the reason I didn't remember anything. It could have been the reason I ran off too. If I did have this disease though, was it caught early enough to be treated?

I guessed it all depended on what kind of cancer it was and how far along it may have been. I let out a stressed yawn. I wasn't physically tired, but my mind didn't want to live through this day any longer. Sleep was its escape for the time being, and I wasn't going to deprive it of it.

I shut my eyes, and was in a halfway awake and asleep state. I could hear what was going on around me, but was out cold. A dream started up, and all I could see was trees flying past me. I was running through the forest that was on the edge of the park, but all I saw were the plants in front of me.

Nothing to my sides or behind me. I couldn't even see myself. Why was I running? I was calm, so nothing was chasing me as far as I could tell. I was startled out of my dream by a creaking sound, followed by a clicking on the tiled floor. Now waking up, I sat up and rubbed the sleep from my eyes.

The first thing my eyes fell on was my window. It was wide open, and letting in the chilling night air. I raised an eyebrow. Had a nurse opened it up while I was sleeping and forgotten to close it? I heard the clicking noise again and turned to my left.

I almost fell from my bed out of shock. In my hospital room, was a wolf. How had it opened the window and gotten inside? My heart sped up, and I started to feel ill again. As weakness began to overcome my body, I was unable to hit the nurse call button for help.

The before my eyes, the wolf's form turned into the outline of a human. It had hands, legs, everything. My heart was going ninety miles an hour, and the faster it went, the sicker I felt. In the dark, I saw the 'person' pull out a syringe like diabetics use, and he took the cap off and stuck it into my leg. I cried out, not knowing what in the world he was doing to me.

He yanked the needle out and threw it away in the little biohazard box, then flipped on the room's light. I got a good look at him now. Brown and black shaggy hair, blue eyes. His build was much more than mine, and he was clearly taller than I. I was trying to regain my breath when he said calmly, "Chill."

I snapped at him, "What did you inject me with!" He pulled out another syringe like the one he threw away and said, "Cortisol. It's a hormone that works the opposite of adrenaline. I couldn't afford you shifting in this place." Was this guys insane? Or was I insane?

I _had_ just seen this guy turn from animal to human right before my very own eyes. "Sh-shift? What are you talking about!" I then realized that my heart had slowed down, even though I was still panicking in my mind. I also didn't feel sick anymore. What else was in that syringe other than that cortisol?

The guy told me again, "Relax. I'm going to explain everything to you in a moment." I didn't want an explanation. I wanted this guy to leave my hospital room before he stabbed me with something else. He walked over to my bedside and picked up my right arm and looked at where my bite marks were slowly fading away. "Rayden bit the fool out of you, didn't he?"

Rayden? Did he mean the wolf that bit me? He kept talking and said, "Usually the bites are fully healed by now. Your's is just starting to." My brain didn't want to comprehend anything any longer. I had been told I might have cancer, and now I was seeing people turn into wolves.

_I'm going crazy. I'm going crazy._ He then sniffed the air and looked at me intensely. "By the smell of it, you shifted not long ago." There he went again throwing around that word. I begged him, "Please just tell me what your talking about and what's going on. I can't take anymore mind games."

He closed the open window, and I felt a rush of relief as the cold air stopped coming in. "I'm sorry. I should have explained everything before I went on and on about something you don't know." _Please don't let any of this be real. Please._ I wanted to just wake up. I didn't care where it was; the hospital, Murucho's, my own home, or the alley.

I just didn't want to be going through _this_ any longer. The guy placed his hand on his chest to point to himself. "My name's Wesley. The wolf who bit you was my cousin, Rayden."

I shook my head, trying to deny his words. "But you're a human. At least, you look human. How can you have a cousin who's a wolf?" Wesley smirked and said, "You look like a human as well, but you're not. Not anymore at least. You're just like me and Rayden. Different."

All I could stutter out was, "Wh-what do you mean _different_?" I was only registering half of everything going on. I would pick up some of his words, and then my thoughts would drown out the rest of them. Wesley said flatly, "You're different, because you're a wolf now. Like me."

_Shun_

I officially diagnosed myself as completely insane. This guy, who broke into my hospital room, turned from a wolf to human, stabbed me with a needle and injected me with something, was telling me that I was a wolf. Yeah, a wolf. Four legs, fur, tail. The whole nine yards.

I laughed and said, "You're insane. Either that, or I am. You might just be a figment of my imagination brought on by a fever or something." My voice started to waver from its slight humor to complete and udder denial. The doctors would seriously put me in a psyche ward if I told them, _"Hey, I was told by some stranger last night that I'm a wolf."_ Wesley said to himself, "Why can't they be easier to explain to?"

He then turned his attention from himself and back to me. "You noticed that you started to feel sick after Rayden bit you, right?" I was going along with the whole Wolf's Name Is Rayden thing, and nodded my head. But how had this guy known that I started feeling sick after my wolf bite?

He hadn't been around me when I started falling ill. Unless he was some kind of stalker, which made me feel kind of violated. Wesley then said, "That sick feeling you got was your body trying to reject the new wolf in you. It's happened to all of us. Your body sees it as a virus, and tries to attack it like one, thus giving you that ill feeling."

Insanity had fried my brain, and I didn't argue back with this guy. I just listened. For some reason, I sensed a bit of truth behind his words. I should have been screaming for somebody to come and take him away, or me to the mental ward, but I didn't.

He said to me, "Until your body quits fighting it, you're going to feel sick every time you shift. Which again, I can tell happened to you not too long ago. By your smell, it was possibly earlier this morning when your shift started." I didn't know. If this was really true, then I didn't know.

It seemed irrational that I had turned into another species and ran around the city. Then again, I didn't remember anything. "Odds are since you're still an unstable new wolf, you won't have much recollection of the time you spent as one. But try and think back to something that you do remember."

The one word I registered was unstable. I asked him, "Unstable?" He nodded his head and told me, "All new wolves have the inability to control their shifts for sometime. They eventually gain control, and when they do they are able to hold onto some of their memories while they were in a new form."

I stared at him with what I guessed was a blank expression. He rolled his eyes and said, "I should probably tell you how the shifts work so you understand what I'm telling you a little better. We shift uncontrollably when first turned into wolves, but slowly gain control. There are other ways that the shift can be triggered. One case is intense stress, and another is increased heart rate. That's why I gave you that cortisol. It counteracts the adrenaline that was causing you to shift, and kept you in this body."

I saw things coming together very slowly. When I woke up in the alley, I felt a pull towards the forest in the park. If there was a wolf in me now, had it been trying to get there for safety? I then remembered the way my heart sped up after the police car almost had a wreck, and how I started to feel sick again.

Quickly, I had calmed down and felt better. Then there was when this guy showed up in my room and my heart had sped up, followed by the familiar sick feeling. All of it went away after Wesley stabbed my leg with that syringe. There was a muffled howl outside that was barely audible through my closed window.

Wesley said, "Looks like I'll have to finish up on giving you the rest of the introduction later. Here, take these with you." He dug into his pocket and pulled out about five syringes like the one he stabbed me with. "These are more doses of cortisol. There only for when you have adrenaline kick in, and are about to shift. They should stop the shift, but they won't stop your random shifts. Use these when only necessary, because you might not get anymore for a little while."

I looked at the orange capped syringes, then saw Wesley pushed open the window again and jumped to the other side. I could still see him. He turned around and closed the window back. His form and shape then started to change, and I heard the faint sound of four feet pounding the earth underneath them.

My eyes fell back to the syringes. This. This couldn't be my life and future now. _I might wake up. It might all have been a dream._ But everything felt as real as the needles in my hands. The reality of everything slammed down on me, and I passed out.

* * *

><p>i almost wasnt able to get this up early due to threat of being dragged to Wal-mart. i've won though. ^^ my dog's scared the crap out of me. they heard thunder outside and barked, and i jumped and typed a whole sentence like; hdu;ashfa;hsfua. o.o i then proceeded to yell at them profusely. o.o read, review, and other things. ~Copperpelt~<p> 


	5. Coming To My Senses

_Alice_

The expression Shun had on his face still haunted me on the drive back to Murucho's mansion. When we told him of the possibility of him having cancer, it was like everything paused for him. _Poor Shun._ I wished there had been an easy way to comfort him, and to make him understand that the odds were very low.

But I had seen how sick he was the other day with my own eyes, and no easily cured illness did anything like this. The more I thought about it, the more and more it looked like he had this disease. I didn't want him to suffer through it though. Shun was too much of a nice guy to have something this horrible happen to him. If he did have cancer and got cured of it, how much would he change?

There was certainly no way that he'd be the same guy as he was before. Something this traumatic would change anybody. But he had looked a million times better when he was brought back to the hospital. As if he had never been sick in the first place. None of it added up to me.

When Kato pulled the limo up in front of Murucho's, I was the last to get out. The others had gone inside of the building, and I slowly followed them in. Being so lost and deep in thought, I never saw that I was walking right into one of the maids.

I bumped into her, and caused the towels she was carrying to fall from her arms and fall to the floor. "Oh my gosh! I'm so sorry!" The maid smiled and said calmly, "It's alright." I bent over and helped her pick up the towels, which smelled of fresh detergent from being recently washed.

Having them folded back up, the maid placed them back in her arms and bowed to me. "Thank you." I bowed back and she walked off in the same direction she was going when I ran into her. I saw the others were sitting down and talking, and I snuck past them and ran upstairs.

I needed some space and time to do some thinking of my own. Without even realizing it, I had walked to the hall that Shun's room was on. I figured it out when I passed by Julie's room and was attacked by the many scents of her perfumes and air fresheners that she overused.

Even when I knew which way I was walking, I still kept going towards Shun's room. His room door was still open, but the bed inside had been made up by one of the housekeepers. Although the blankets were neatly straightened and tucked under the mattress, I could still see a phantom figure of Shun laying motionless in his bed.

I sighed. He was bound to have a million thoughts and questions running through his mind right now, and I wished that I was there with him to help deal with them confusion and shock.

But that might not have been the smartest of my ideas, since I was still in shock myself. And I had the news much longer than Shun had. I turned around and saw that all of his belongings were still set up across the room, as if the place itself was waiting for his return.

If those tests came back positive though, there might not be any return. The thought of never seeing Shun again made a lump form in my throat. I couldn't stay in the room any longer. It only made me think negative things that might happen to Shun, when I needed to be thinking positive.

If I kept my mind set on good things, then maybe good things would happen. The tests might come back negative, and Shun would be fine and right back with our little group. Things would be back to normal all over again; Shun would say something about Dan being an idiot, and then they would fight and we would have to break them up before somebody really got hurt.

I smiled. Shun may have kept to himself a lot, but he was a good guy, and overall had a good personality. He just needed to show it more. Whenever he did, you'd see somebody entirely different.

You wouldn't think this was the same person who stayed far away from his friends and never spoke a word unless he had to. With these two different sides of Shun, it was difficult to see who the real one was.

I liked both of them to be honest. They made up who he was, and not somebody he wasn't. All the thoughts of Shun having a deadly illness had about totally gone from my mind as I overpowered them with memories of Shun from a better time.

_Shun_

The sound of footsteps in my room made me stir. Instinctively, I thought it was Wesley. My eyes flew open, and I shot up in my bed. One of my IV lines caught on something, and I flinched at the pain. "Dammit!" I then turned and saw a surprised nurse looking at me with wide eyes.

She was holding another IV drip bag in her hand, and was frozen in her place. I only stared back at her, not blinking my eyes in fear that she would change into a wolf or another animal. The nurse blinked, and slowly replaced the IV bag without taking her eyes from me. I didn't take my eyes from her.

She nodded her head and said, "I have to go now." I nodded my head and she walked out of the room shaking her head. That probably wasn't what she was expecting this early in the morning. I leaned forward and looked out of my room window. I was ground level with the earth outside.

Sunlight sparkled on the snow that was still remaining from the other day, or from a snowfall that may have happened last night. Last night. I shuddered at what I remembered. A total stranger breaking into my room that changed into a wolf, then started saying I was like him after stabbing me with a dose of cortisol.

Had it all been a dream? A horrible dream brought on by a fever or certain medicine? I felt something under my hand behind me, and picked the objects up. In my hand was about five small, orange capped syringes with a clear liquid in all of them.

The very ones that this Wesley guy had given to me to counteract adrenaline and to keep me from 'shifting' into a wolf. None of last night had been a dream. I couldn't really be a wolf, right? That was physically impossible for a human to turn into another species.

If such a thing was true, then I was sure that it would be in medical books, news channels, and everything else. When I thought about it, the closest thing to this was all those stories about werewolves. Was this how they came about? But it hadn't been a full moon last night, and I had seen Wesley shift before my eyes.

Twice at that. I made a note to myself to ask him more questions if I ever ran into him again. Somebody else walked into my room, and I saw my doctor step through the door. He looked tired. His hair was still disheveled, and I could see his facial hair coming in from where he hadn't shaved this morning or last night.

He yawned and said, "How are you feeling this morning?" His voice was dragging slightly. I wondered if he had even left the hospital last night to go home and sleep. I told him with barely any emotion, "Fine. Just fine." Apparently my mind hadn't woken up quite yet, and was still in partial shock from what happened to me last night.

But I did feel fine. I couldn't sense any traces of the sick feeling I had when my friends had brought me to the hospital. Not even that feeling from in the back or the police car or when Wesley showed up last night. It wasn't there either.

I asked my doctor, "Did you find anything out about my tests that you took last night?" The nurses had taken what seemed like half of my blood when I was brought back. They were bound to have found out something by now. My doctor shook himself awake and said, "Oh, yes. Your tests."

He flipped through his clipboard and scanned several pages. "Here we go. Hmmm. Normal….Normal….Normal…..Huh." He kept scanning the page, and even went on to the next one. "All of the tests are normal." He rubbed his eyes and looked back at the chart. "Maybe I should have gotten more sleep last night. Nurse!"

A nurse ran inside and he asked her, "Could you read me these results and make sure I'm seeing them correctly?" She read the page and nodded her head. My doctor dismissed her and ran a hand through his graying hair. "This doesn't make sense. You had an insanely high white count when your friends brought you here yesterday. Now everything's back to normal."

_Normal._ If what I was told last night was the truth, then I was anything but normal. I was the kind of thing now that I'd be taken away to a government lab and dissected on. I pushed those thoughts away from my mind. Seeing myself cut open and being studied wasn't the prettiest image for my mind.

The doctor shook his head and told me, "I might want to run those tests again. The machine might have messed up and read them wrong." I was fine with this, as long as I wasn't about to lose anymore of my blood. I didn't think my body could handle them taking what seemed like six pints again.

I didn't even think I had that much blood in my body. I asked him though, "Does this mean I might not have…You know…Cancer?" I practically whispered the last word. The doctor yawned again. "I'm sorry about that. Didn't sleep much last night. I'm not sure. We have to run those tests again because this doesn't make any sense whatsoever. And I don't want to send you home still being sick when our tests say your fine."

I gave him a nod of understanding and watched him leave my room. Not long after his departure, an elderly nurse walked in and started taking more of my blood. She only took three vials, but each one started to look like they were getting bigger and bigger.

She smiled and said, "I promise this is the last time we're going to poke and prod you for a while." I nodded my head. At this rate I was going to develop a horrible fear of hospitals are needles when I finally got out of this place. After about thirty minutes after they took my blood again, I had my breakfast brought in for me.

The woman smiled and said, "Straight from the cafeteria with love." She then walked out to give the next patient their food, and say the same thing to them. I stared at the food; a small serving of eggs, two strips of bacon, and some toast with packets of jelly.

Even though I was starving, I pushed the food away. I wasn't sure why though. It wasn't that I had anything against hospital food, I just didn't want what was placed in front of me. I then figured that the food wasn't real. It was most likely soy-based or something like that.

How had I known that? This food could have fooled anybody; in not only taste but appearance. There was something about to smell to me though. I picked up the artificial flavor's scents, but also picked up the overpowering smell of the soy that they were made of.

But my growling stomach was screaming for me to eat something. Reluctantly, I picked up the toast and just ate it. They had certainly overcooked it to the point where it was almost impossible to bite through it. I washed it down with the water they brought me, but I was still hungry.

There wasn't anyway I was about to touch the rest of the food though. I turned my nose up at it, forcing myself to ignore my stomach. The others then walked into my room, and I saw Alice holding a bag. I instantly picked up the smell of Murucho's chef's cooking. Dan smiled and said, "We thought you'd appreciate something other than this hospital's food."

I laughed and told them, "You guys really are lifesavers, you know that?" Runo placed a hand on her hip and said, "Well you're looking better." The others nodded their heads in agreement. Dan asked jokingly, "What kind of drugs they got you on now?" I shrugged and said, "No clue."

_Cortisol_ is what I should have told them, but then I'd have to go into detail of what it was for and I wasn't about to try my friends' reasoning. _As if they'd take it easy if I told them I might be a wolf._ They'd probably rather here I had cancer instead.

At least then I wouldn't be thrown into a mental ward if I had cancer. Alice asked me in her gentle voice, "Did they tell you anything about those tests?" I pulled out some of the food that was in the bag and said, "I'm fine."

* * *

><p>aye aye aye. it has been one of them days. first, i find out that my reed is skrewing up on my bari sax, and now my low notes won't come out and i have to invest like 40 bucks into a box of reeds. then i have to break them in which is a pain. (i got 99 problems and a reed is ALL of them) then i forget my construction paper in the band hall and have to walk ALL the way back to it and then back to geometry. now i have a ghetto fingernail paint (Sharpie marker) cause the sub didnt like the smell of REAL fingernail polish. and when i got home i broke up with my boyfriend and he started to cry and then i had to spend an hour comforting him. (French class is going to be awkward) well, enough of my my problems. read, review, and other things. ~Copperpelt~<p> 


	6. Open Season

_Alice_

_Fine?_ The tests said that Shun was _fine_? By the looks of everyone else's faces, they were trying to make sense of this just as I had been. How could he be fine when he was sick? But when I looked closer to him, I saw that he did look like his old self.

All the color had returned to his face, and he didn't look like he was about to die. Murucho finally asked Shun, "The tests were negative for everything?" Shun nodded his head and told us, "But they're going to run them all again to see if the lab messed something up."

It was a good thing that they were running the tests again, but part of my mind was tugging itself in two completely different directions. One side of me wished that the tests came back as the same so Shun would be considered healthy and well. But another side wanted them to come back positive for something so he could get treatments.

Either way though, I wanted him to be well. Shun's doctor then walked into the room, and stopped when he saw us. "Oh, hello there. I wasn't expecting you all to be here so soon." Murucho told him, "We can leave the room if you want us too."

The doctor shook his head and told him, "It's quite alright. You all deserve the tests results as much as he does." I caught a glimpse of an orange folder laying on top of his clipboard. He pulled at the tabs that were holding the papers inside.

"I haven't seen them yet either, so I don't know if they're different or the same." He then lifted the little flap and pulled out a stack of white papers. Anxiousness was causing my heart to speed up as I waited for him to tell us what was either wrong or not wrong with Shun.

I wondered if Shun was as jumpy right now as I was. He probably was. I mean, it was his health that was on the line. The doctor's eyes scanned along the paper, and his blank expression turned into one of confusion. He shook his head, still looking as baffled and bewildered as ever.

"This just doesn't make sense. We ran these tests through the ringers as many times as we could." Julie asked the doctor, "What do they say?" Doctor Winston shook his head and sighed. "Normal again. Everything. Normal. I just can't figure it out. I know you're sick, but the tests are telling me no."

When I looked at Shun, he seemed calm. I thought he'd be at least a little strung out since he didn't know what was wrong with him, but he acted like he knew that those tests would be normal and negative for any trace of disease. Did he somehow know something that we didn't?

How would he know if he did find out anything? His doctor let out an aggravated sigh and said, "That's it. I'm ordering a spinal tap for you. If that doesn't reveal anything to us, then I don't know what else to do." Shun's calm expression turned into one of shock.

We all knew how spinal taps were performed, and how painful they could be. His doctor walked out of the room to place the request for this painful procedure to be performed on Shun. His doctor then came back into the room with two nurses behind him; one female and one male.

The male nurse was holding a tray with a few vials and syringes. The tools seemed to take on a tortuous feeling, but that may have been because of the pain that was to come. The doctor told us, "You all can stay in here as long as you're not in the way of us. And you might want to leave if you get sick easily."

None of us budged from the room, but we did all go the other side of the room so we wouldn't be in their way while they worked. The female nurse told Shun to roll over on his side. He did as she requested, and now Shun was facing us. He looked up at us, and I could see the worry and anxiety in his eyes.

This wasn't something that would be very fun for any of us. Especially not Shun, who was the one receiving the needle into his spine. They lifted up the back of his shirt and cleaned a spot on his back where the needle would go through the skin.

Shun's eyes were now darting back and forth, as if something would stop this from happening. I hated watching him being tormented like this, even if it was for his own good. If it were on other terms than his health, then I might have tried to stop it.

But he needed this. It would tell us if he truly was sick or if he really did have a miraculous recovery. They injected something into Shun's back, and then threw the used needle away in the biohazard box. The doctor said through his mask, "Just some anesthetics to make the procedure less painful."

Shun didn't seem to believe that it would help any. Now his doctor held up just a needle that looked like it was about six inches in length, but looked almost hair thin. That needle was then stuck right into his spine, and I watched Shun try and bite back the pain he was feeling.

The nurses were holding him in place so he wouldn't move while the needle was in his back. Did they know how strong Shun was, and what he could be capable of doing?

Shun could have easily knocked them away, but I saw that he was refraining from doing that. He was putting his will over pain for this, and it didn't appear easy for him. I couldn't watch him like that any longer, and walked out of the room and into the hall.

_Shun_

Alice was lucky she had the luxury of walking out of the room. I saw her leave once I felt that second needle go into my back. Even though I was supposed to be numbed up, the pain was still too much for my to handle. In an attempt to fight it back, I bit down on the inside of my cheek and lip.

It didn't take long for me to taste the coppery taste of blood on my tongue. It wasn't like I felt the needle itself, but it was more like a heavy pressure being placed on me. I said through gritted teeth, "How much longer?" My doctor said behind me, "Just a little bit more and then we're done."

Anxiety had kicked in a while ago; about the time they told me to roll over on my side. But there was something that caused more anxiety to build up in me. I was starting to feel sick again. The dosage of cortisol that was in me was wearing off, and the stress from the spinal tap was causing my body to start changing.

It still felt weird for me to think that I was turning into a wolf, but I didn't have many other answers to go by. Until I could truly verify that I wasn't human any longer. I needed another shot of that cortisol before I started to go too far into the 'shift' for it to work.

But I had hidden the syringes under me so the nurses of the others wouldn't see them, and they were still under me and out of my reach. _At least they're still out of sight._ I knew if a nurse of my doctor spotted them, I'd have to tell them how I got the cortisol and why I had it. Two answers that would get me stares that said I was crazy. I had to find a way to calm myself down. How would I do that?

My doctor asked me, "Are you feeling alright? It feels like you're getting warm." I nodded my head and told him, "It just hurts." I slowed down my breathing, and it seemed to help a little. I still ached and felt my arm burning. But the pain I was feeling from the anxiety caused shift was much worse than the pain from the spinal tap, and it had taken my mind away from the needle in my back.

The pressure in back then went away, and I felt them place a bandage on my back. The male nurse said I couldn't roll over for several hours, which I wasn't sure if I'd be able to stay in this position for that long. What would it hurt if I did roll onto my stomach or sat up? I decided it was better not to find out.

Now that the needle was out and the procedure was over, I felt myself returning to a state of calmness. The ache in my body started to drain away, along with the fever I was developing. Apparently my body still hadn't accepted the new side of me quite yet.

At least I was lucky and this wasn't one of those random shifts that Wesley had told me about. Thinking about shifts and all of that still sounded like sheer insanity. But I still couldn't shake the feeling that it was true. That I had actually turned into a wolf the night I ran off from the hospital, that I had actually seen Wesley change species two times, and that this would be my life from now on.

Where would that leave me if and when I decided to marry or settle down with somebody? Surely nobody would want to be with somebody that wasn't ever meant to exist. Not even Alice, who was so understanding, would want to be with somebody like me or Wesley.

It was just so alien and preposterous to happen. I then heard Alice's voice behind me say, "Are they done in here?" I saw Dan nod his head. "Yeah. They just left about a minute ago to take the samples to be tested on." I heard the clicking on Alice's shoes on the tile floor, and then she appeared with the others. "I must have been in the bathroom when they left out."

She then looked down at me with her caring eyes. "It looked really painful." I smiled and said, "It wasn't the most pleasant thing, but I'm just happy it's over with now." The others were still in my room when a nurse came in and said that I was able to roll back over again.

My body was screaming for me to move from that position. Laying like that for an hour or so had me sore. When I rolled over, I heard almost every joint in my body pop. Julie made a face as if she were the one who it was happening to. I sat up and stretched. _I'm never taking movement for granted again._

I asked the nurse before he left my room, "Are my tests done yet?" He shook his head and said, "They'll be a little bit longer. Maybe within the hour." I nodded my head and the nurse walked out of the room. Dan clapped his hands together and said, "How about some TV?"

I shrugged my shoulders, not caring if the TV was on or not. It could have been just the think I needed to get my mind off of all of this wolf nonsense. Dan stared at the remote for a moment as he tried to figure out how it worked, and Runo snatched it from him and turned the TV on. "Hey! I almost had it!"

Runo rolled her eyes and said, "I want to see what's on right now. Not two hours from now." I chuckled. I hadn't realized how quickly I missed their bickering. It certainly did keep things interesting. Julie asked Runo, "Could you stop it on the news channel first? I want to see the weather so I know what I should wear tomorrow."

Runo nodded and flipped through several channels, and eventually found the one we were looking on. Julie whined and said, "Why can't the weather report ever be on when I need it." Murucho shushed her down and said, "Be quiet. Listen to this report."

The news channel's field reporter was standing next to the statue in the park, a microphone in her hand and held up near her mouth. In the background behind her was a woman who was nothing short of in a mass hysteria.

The captions under the woman said, _"Three year old attacked and killed by wolves."_ I felt my eyes widen when the news reporter said, "The push for the wolf hunt has increased-" She stopped and listened to the earpiece she was wearing. "Correction. The wolf hunt is now official."

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><p>-dramatic music- ^^ lol. today went by quick. omg thank goodness it is friday though. ^^ i need this weekend so badly. well, read, review, and other things. ~Copperpelt~<p> 


	7. Tell The World I'm Coming Home

_Shun_

Julie said, "They're really going to do that wolf hunt?" I hushed her down and said, "Shush. They're talking about it again." The news reporter walked around, and the camera followed her every movement.

"With the wolves moving closer into the city, there has been a push for something to be done about them, and with the wolf attack several days ago, the hunt was being pushed even further. Now with the first actual death of a person, it seems like the spark has ignited the fire."

I didn't take my eyes from the TV. If everything I had been told was true, then I was involved with this as well. I didn't want to be hunted, that was for sure. And I was positive that Wesley didn't want to be hunted either. Did he even know about the hunt that would take place?

Surely he did. The woman started to speak again. "City officials have issued a date for the hunt. It will take place a month from today in order to gather up enough supplies and volunteers." It was easy to figure out that by supplies that they meant guns and anything else they could use to hunt down the wolves.

There would probably be a decent amount of 'volunteers' for this since the death of that child had caused such pandemonium. There would be people out there to keep their families safe, get payback for that kid, and just out there for the love of killing something.

Runo said, "How can the city just say they want the wolves all killed? Can't there be a more simpler way to get rid of them? Like, move them?" Murucho shook his head and said, "The city officials wanted to do something like that, but with all of the requests for the wolf hunt to take place they went ahead and accepted them to calm down the citizens."

I looked at Murucho and asked, "How do you know that?" He sighed and said, "My Uncle is one of the city officials. He called up my parents the other night and told them about this, and I added myself onto the phone line without them knowing."

The report was repeating itself again, and I grabbed the remote and turned the TV off. I didn't want to hear anymore of this. I then realized how hypocritical I was. Before that wolf bite and the craziness that followed it, I wouldn't have given a two cents about if the wolves were going to be shot and killed.

Now that I was involved with them, I cared. Even if I couldn't prove a hundred percent that I was actually a wolf now. I looked down at my right arm, the one that had been bitten.

It was completely healed now, and the stitches were taken out last night by a nurse. If they hadn't, then I would have healed up right over them. I pushed the covers off of me and climbed out of my bed. Alice asked me, "Shun, where are you going?" I told her, "Outside for some air."

I was about to walk off, but she grabbed my wrist to stop me. "No you're not. Not until we get those test results back and know if something is wrong with you." She held a strong and determined gaze at me. I closed my eyes and sighed, trying to ignore the slight blush on my face. "Fine."

When I looked back at my bed, I noticed one of the orange caps to the syringes of cortisol sticking out. Quickly, I pulled the covers up and got back in the bed to keep them hidden. Apparently none of the others had seen them, and I felt a rush of relief.

I needed to find somewhere other than this spot to hide those syringes. It was clear that right under me wasn't the best of places. I heard the voice of my doctor down the hall. "Are you serious?" We all turned and stared at the door, which he soon walked through.

He looked ready to hit his head against a wall, which could only mean that those test results weren't what he wanted. I asked in an unsure voice, "Normal again?" The doctor ran a hand through his graying hair and nodded his head. "Clean. All clean. Not even the sign of a cold."

I wished I could just make it simpler for everyone and tell them what really was going on, but I liked being outside of those padded rooms and straight jackets. My doctor leaned his back against the wall and folded his arms across his chest. "I hate to send a patient home, but by hospital regulations if we haven't found something wrong with a patient then they have to go home. And it's not enough to know that your sick. There has to be hard evidence in tests."

He sighed again. He might not have wanted me out of this hospital, but I sure did. I had finally gotten tired of being poked and prodded with needles. Murucho butted in by saying, "You can't just discharge Shun though. We all saw how sick he was when we brought him here."

I kept myself from glaring at the short blonde. _Murucho, shut it. Please._ My doctor threw his hands up halfway and said, "There's nothing else I can do. We've done every tests we can perform without cutting him open." I felt my eyes widen. "You aren't about to cut me open. No way."

The doctor held up his hands in defense and said, "No. We can't do that without consent. Plus, you don't need it anyway." I let out a relieved sigh. Surgery was where I crossed the line in this madhouse. They had taken enough blood from me to fill up their blood bank, stabbed me in my spine with a needle, and gave me so many different drugs that I'd probably never recover from.

They were not about to get the luxury of doing a surgery on me. They'd have to take me running if they tried that. And if I tried running, then I'd run the risk of shifting. Heck, I was running a risk of shifting right now until my body stopped fighting what was inside of it now.

I wondered how long that would take. Had I already accepted it now? Would I feel different when I did? My doctor shook his head and sighed. "Looks like I have to get your discharge papers ready, because according to the hospital you're taking up a bed that somebody else might need."

Alice quickly said, "So you're just going to let him go without knowing what's wrong with him?" I stayed quiet during this argument. I didn't need this hospital anymore. It was nothing more than a place that I might get caught in during a shift.

The doctor said back to her calmly, "Trust me, I don't want to. I'd poison him if it meant keeping him here so I could find out what was wrong with him." Now I was back in the argument. "You're not seriously going to do that, are you?"

My doctor laughed and said, "No. I was just being hypothetical. I'd get fired and thrown into jail for wrongful practice if I did that." He sighed again and walked out of the room. Dan said, "I can't believe that he's just basically kicking Shun out of the hospital."

Murucho nodded his head and said, "I know, Dan. But it's the hospital's say, not the doctor's. We'll just have to keep a watch on Shun and make sure he doesn't get sick again." Julie smiled and said, "Yeah. Heck, he might of just had some kind of 24 hour bug or whatever."

Murucho pushed his glasses up and said, "I hate to disprove your theory Julie, but if he had any kind of 24 hour infection they'd still be able to pick up traces of it. Even after the 24 hours." Julie rolled her eyes. "This is why I don't like being around people who are smarter than me."

I bit back a smart-aleck comment, because it would only result in Julie yelling. It took the hospital several hours to run my discharge papers to where they needed to be, and by then I had already gathered everything that was mine. The others were somewhere else in the hospital, and I took this time to myself to put the syringes of cortisol in my bag they brought for me. I patted the bed to make sure I didn't miss any.

Now that I had everything that was mine, I zipped the duffle bag up and dropped it on my bed. The others returned, and I saw that Dan had a bottled drink. Runo said irately, "Sorry we were gone for a while, but the genius here got us lost looking for the vending machines."

Dan snapped back at her, "Hey! I found them, didn't I!" Runo got in his face and said, "Yeah, after we went on three different floors!" I stared at them, then chuckled. Alice, Julie, and Murucho were a safe distance from them, and the three of them quickly ran around Dan and Runo.

They were now on the other side of the room where I was standing. Julie said, "I'm not getting caught up in their bickering again. Last time I got my hair pulled." I remembered that very clearly. Runo had tried to hit Dan in the head, but her hand had caught on Julie's hair instead.

A smile crossed my face at the memory. Alice looked at the duffle bag on my bed and said, "Got everything packed and ready to go?" I smiled and said, "Yep. I'm ready to get the heck out of this place before they stick another needle in me."

She smiled and added, "Yeah, you've been through a lot the past few days or so." _You have no idea how much I've been through._ I was the last step for my discharge from the hospital. I had to sign the forms and consent that I understood why I was leaving the hospital.

It was their way of making sure I wouldn't file a law suit on them. I didn't think that any lawyer would represent me for saying they missed a werewolf diagnosis. We walked out of the emergency room, and I was hit with a wave of freezing air. "Damn it got cold!"

I shivered since all I had on was a thin shirt and jeans. The hairs on my arms stood up in order to hold in heat for my body. Dan laughed and said, "Yeah, winter came a little early while you were trapped in that hospital." I folded my arms to stay warm and looked around outside. "I'll say."

Snow had covered everything except the streets, which had been cleaned off. My eyes then saw Murucho's limo waiting for us. Seeing that limo and Kato standing outside of it made me see that I really was finally getting out of this place. Kato held out his hand to take my bag from me.

I handed it to him and thanked him. He was wearing a pretty thick jacket, and that only made me wish that one of the others had thought about bringing an extra for me. Then again, none of us knew that I'd be getting out of the hospital today either. I climbed into the limo last, and shut the door behind me.

I was sitting next to Alice when I got inside, and Dan was across from me. On the drive back to Murucho's, the topic of the hospital was only brought up once, but the rest of it was about this freak weather we were having. Yeah, winter was in a week or so, but you'd think it was already here when you looked outside.

They had even closed schools for the weather. But I doubted that there would be any kids at the park playing in the snow after that kid had been attacked and killed by one of the wolves.

When we finally got to Murucho's, I hurried inside to escape the cold. I let out a sigh of relief as the mansion's heater warmed me up. The others walked in behind me, along with Kato behind them. He held up my duffle bag and said, "I'll take this up to your room."

I nodded my head and watched him vanish upstairs. Dan asked me, "So, what are you going to do." I thought for a moment. "I was thinking about driving on back to my grandfather's dojo and staying there for a few days. You know, let him in on all of the hospital drama that's been going on."

That wasn't my real intentions though. The dojo was quiet, peaceful, and calm. The perfect place to keep my stress under control. As long as the old man didn't get on my bad side, which he had gotten better about recently. I guessed it was because he was getting up in his years.

The only thing I would have to worry about was a random and uncontrolled shift. Murucho asked me, "Do you want Kato to drive you there?" I shook my head no and told him, "It's ok. I can drive there myself." My car was in the underground garage under Murucho's mansion. It was a used Mercedes, but it was in almost brand new condition.

Murucho asked, "Are you sure you should driving after just getting out of the hospital?" I stuck my hands in my pockets and said, "I feel fine. Besides, it's only about a thirty or forty minute drive from here if I go by the speed limit. But if you guys are so worried about my health, then I'll go tomorrow."

A day's wait might was cutting it close for me. What if I shifted here at Murucho's? I shook my head. _Listen to yourself. You've been talking about shifting for the past two days, and you don't even know if it's true or not._ I hated that torn feeling I got when I argued with myself about shifting.

The logical and rational side kept telling my mind that it wasn't true, but the confused part of me believed it a hundred percent. Murucho snapped me out of my thoughts when he said, "Alright. I guess you can go tomorrow. Your grandfather does need to know what's been going on." I smiled and nodded my head.

* * *

><p><em>chapter title based off song I'm Coming Home by Diddy-Dirty Money.<em> o.o yeah i'm not one that's big on his music or anything but i like that song. o.o (nobody kill me lol) i keep forgetting to say this but check out my profile for the cover to this story. -.- i've been meaning to say this, but i get so side tracked. :/ well, read, review, and other things. ~Copperpelt~


	8. Taken Away By The Forest

_Shun_

Out of all of the nights since my wolf bite, this had to be the best one I had slept. For one, there were no IV lines that caught on something when I rolled over or moved. And two, there wasn't the droning sound of machines beeping. With this new serenity that I had been deprived of in the hospital, I closed my eyes and fell immediately asleep and right into a dream.

I was back in the forest at the edge of the park, but I seemed to be deeper in the woods that before. I looked around, and didn't see any buildings, people, or cars. All around me were the browns of leaves that still clung to tree branches, the grays of the bare tree trunks, and the white of snow covering the ground.

It was definitely winter in this dream. I didn't look at myself, but I knew that I wasn't a human right then. I was too close to the ground to be standing upright. My ears shot up before a loud sound cut the peaceful air. Gunfire. I whipped my head from side to side and saw a pack of wolves running through the trees and snow in front of me.

Somehow I picked out Wesley near the front of the group, and then I easily saw Rayden. Only because I had seen in as a wolf, and he was the one who bit me. They didn't see me as they ran by. Fear and determination were in all of their eyes. Then a group of people came running up behind them.

They were talking, but I couldn't make sense of what they were saying. One in the front of the group was waving in the directions the wolves went. The others nodded their heads and followed after him. I saw a gun in everyone of their hands. My mind then gave me an image of a news report.

This was the wolf hunt. One of the people stopped and looked me square in the eyes. He slowly lifted up his gun, and stuck something in it before bringing it up to his eyes. Fear had me planted in the snow. I was staring right down the barrel of that gun. _Run!_ I didn't hesitate to follow the voice's order.

I shot off to the left right at the gun was fired. I actually felt the bullet go right past me, but it hadn't pierced my skin. I started off in the direction that I saw the other wolves go. The man that shot at me said, "Let's cut this one off!" I didn't understand what he was saying.

To me it was like he was speaking in another language, but something was telling me to keep running. I then skidded to a halt when I was faced with two more people, then two more. They were corning me, and leaving me with nowhere to run. Slowly, they were backing me up against a ravine that was below me.

My back foot almost slipped off, but I stayed right at the edge. _Jump. It will be alright._ The voice wanted me to jump now. Was it crazy? But what other choice did I have? It was either get filled with bullets or a few broken bones. I took another step back, and a little ledge of snow broke under me.

Next thing I knew, I was tumbling down into the ravine. I landed in a pile of snow, and didn't feel anything broken. I was about to get up with the voice came back. _Don't move._ I didn't. Instead, I just laid in the snow motionless. The people were looking down at me. One said, "He's as good as dead. Leave him there."

They then walked off. I raised my head up, and stared at the top of the ravine for a moment in case they came back. The snow around me then started to turn a tint of red, but it wasn't blood. I looked up at the sky and saw the moon.

It seemed so close that it could be touched. When I looked up at the moon, I also found out why the snow turned red; the moon was red itself. There were more gunshots off in the distance, followed by yelps and howls. I couldn't let this massacre happen. Whether I was really a wolf or not.

My eyes then flew open, and I was out of the snow covered woods and back in my guest room at Murucho's. Morning sun filled my room with light, and told me that it was the dawning of a new day. And a day closer to that hunt. I felt my heart was racing a little, but I felt fine.

It mustn't have been enough to cause me to start a shift. I looked down and saw that I had kicked my covers off of myself last night during my dream. I stood up and picked the blanket up, then threw it haphazardly back on the bed. I then changed into a new pair of clothes, and started to pack my belongings into another duffle bag. I was going back to my grandfather's dojo today.

It was the only place that I could go that would keep me calm, and out of stress induced shifts. As long as my grandfather stayed on my good side. Feeling that I had everything I needed, I zipped up the duffle bag. I also double checked and made sure those few syringes of cortisol were also in there.

They were, and I sighed. It wouldn't matter if my grandfather found them. I could always tell him that the doctor gave them to me. I put the duffle bag on my shoulder and walked out of my room. When I got to Julie's, her door was open and I saw her standing in front of a mirror putting on make-up. She saw me reflection with hers and said, "Oh, hey Shun." I nodded my head and said, "Morning."

I kept walking before she tried to do something with my hair like she did Murucho's one day. As I went further through the maze that was Murucho's house, I could smell the scent of breakfast being cooked. I knew where the others would be now.

I found my way to the dining hall, and was correct. The others were sitting down at the long dining table. Plates that were only clean for now were set in front of them with the appropriate silverware placed next to it. Dan saw the duffle bag in my hand and said, "You've already packed?"

I nodded my head while taking my usual seat at the table. "Yeah. I'm probably going to head out when I finish eating." Alice asked me, "How did you sleep last night?" I straightened a fork in front of me that seemed a little crooked and said, "Pretty good. Better than I did at that hospital by far."

She nodded her head and our conversation was left right there. Julie then came skipping into the room. "Morning, everyone." There was a chorus of 'mornings' given back to her. Kato then came in the room with the breakfast that had been cooking in the kitchen when I woke up. It didn't take us long to finish the food, and when I was I done I stood up.

I dug out my car keys that I had stuck in my pocket while getting all of my things together. I asked Murucho, "I'm guessing my car is still here?" Murucho nodded his head and said back, "Yeah. Unless it drove itself away." I draped the duffle bag back over my shoulder and said, "I'll call you guys when I get to my grandfather's, ok?"

They nodded their heads. I knew they didn't want me driving out anywhere so soon after getting out of the hospital with an 'undetectable disease', I was at least going to give them some peace if mind by calling them and letting them know I got there in one piece.

I said my good-byes to them and made my way to the underground garage where my car was. It was still there like Murucho had said. Which, I knew it would be. I was the only with the key after all. I unlocked the door and threw my bag in the back seat. I then stuck the key in the ignition and backed the Mercedes out of the garage.

_Shun_

It would have been less that an hour's drive back to my grandfather's dojo, but the roads were started to get slick with ice and snow. I decided that it would be too much of a hassle to navigate the busy streets to get to the dojo. So, I opted to take the scenic route.

It was another twenty minutes that would be added onto my trip, plus however long it would take since I was going way under the speed limit to reduce the chance of having a wreck. After doing the math quickly in my head, it would probably take me right at an hour and thirty minutes to get back to the dojo at the rate I was going. But, that was just an estimate. The scenic route was a street that went right past the forest at the park.

It was a two lane street, lined with trees on both sides. Rarely did you ever meet another car. The trees were already losing their leaves to the cold air and changing of seasons. The sun was setting faster than I expected, but that was because of the approaching winter; shorter days and longer nights.

Just like the cold, the sun's pattern was also changing early. I was maybe a fourth of the way there when my head started to hurt. I kept one hand on the wheel, and the other pressed lightly against the side of my head. The pain traveled from my head, to my shoulders and down the rest of my body.

A jolt of pain then shot through me, and caused my hands to react and pulled the wheel to the side. I went off the road and into the snow covered ditch. The front of my car hit a tree, but not with enough force to deploy the airbags. I placed my forehead on the steering wheel and clenched my teeth as pain racked my body. Tears actually started to form in my eyes.

The last time I felt something like this was…._When Alice brought me to the hospital._ Was I shifting? If I was, then there wasn't anything that the cortisol could do for me. This wasn't one brought on by stress or adrenaline. This was one brought on because my body was still fighting. I clenched my hands on the wheel as another wave of pain hit me. I couldn't stay in the car while I shifted.

If I did, then I'd be trapped in it as a wolf. I found the door handle and pushed the car door open. I fell out of the car and onto the snow covered ground. Already, my body was cold and wet from the snow. I forced to lift my head up, thinking that maybe a car would come by and see me.

It wouldn't have made a difference though. I was about to turn into another animal. There wasn't anything medical attention would be able to do. I'd have to grin and bare this until it was over. The edges of my vision started to get blurry and black, signaling that I was about to pass out.

Another course of burning pain slammed itself into my body, and actually caused me to throw up. I laid in that snow, wretched in pain, for what seemed like an eternity. Finally, my body succumbed to the pain, and blacked out.

_Alice_

I didn't really like the idea of Shun driving around right after he was released from the hospital. He could have suddenly gotten sick again, and we wouldn't have any knowledge of it. _But he looked fine when he left._ He had been gone about four hours, which was plenty of time for him to get back to his grandfather's dojo.

He was supposed to call us when he got there. _Maybe he forgot. Or is stuck in traffic._ I knew the roads were slick, and Shun was cautious enough that he'd go along the roads slowly. Another two hours crawled by, and my concern turned into worry.

I told the others, "I think we should call Shun and see if he's alright. He should have gotten to his grandfather's dojo and called hours ago." The others looked at each other. Murucho said, "She has a point. Even with slick roads it doesn't take this long to get to that dojo. I'll go and call up his grandfather and see if he ever got there. You never know, he might have just forgotten."

I nodded my head and watched Murucho pull out his phone. The sun was vanishing fast, and it would be night soon. If Shun had a wreck and was trapped out there at night, then he'd have to find somewhere warm. And fast.

Murucho said into his phone, "Hello?…..Yeah, it's Murucho Marakura. One of Shun's friends. I was just calling to see if Shun made it back to your place safely…..Really?…..Ok. Thank you." He hung up his phone and turned to us. He said flatly, "Shun never showed up there."

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><p>-yawns- sleepy i am. lol. check out the cover if you haven't already done so. and read, review, and other things. ~Copperpelt~<p> 


	9. This Is Me?

_Alice_

It didn't take us two seconds to get off the phone with Shun's grandfather and to get Kato to crank up the limo. Already, we were flying down the streets, completely ignoring the slick ice that could cause us to wreck if Kato wasn't being careful. Dan rubbed his chin and seemed lost in thought.

He then said, "If I know Shun well enough, he wouldn't have gone the route with more traffic. Not with the way the roads are now. He probably took the back way." Murucho asked, "Which way is the back way?" Dan craned his neck to look out of the window, and then pointed.

"Right that way. Past the park. It takes longer, but there are rarely any cars that go that way since the new highway was built." Murucho nodded and told Kato to take that road instead of the highway. It was a gamble, but there was a chance that we'd find Shun there if Dan's assumption was correct.

What had happened to Shun that kept him from getting to his grandfather's dojo? Did he have a wreck? Or get sick again? As Kato drove us towards the back road, I noticed that there we fewer and fewer cars passing us. No longer were we surrounded by the buildings of the city or cars. Now, we were surrounded by trees and snow on both sides of the limo.

This was the forest that had been saved from the construction of a massive mall. Somewhere behind us was the park where Shun had gotten bit, and where that kid had been killed. I looked out the window and at the sky above the trees. It would be dusk in a few hours.

If we didn't find Shun before that, then we'd have a problem. Runo broke the silence in the limo when she pointed ahead of us on the street and said, "Isn't that Shun's car?" We all moved around and looked out of the front windshield. Sure enough there was a black Mercedes that had gone off in a ditch. The lights were still on, which meant the engine was running.

Kato pulled off to the side of the road, and we all got out of the limo. The driver's door was flung wide open, and revealed an empty interior. Dan walked around the car and said, "It's Shun's. That's his license plate number on the back." I started looking around.

If he had walked, he would have still made it back to his grandfather's before we had called. I started to think for a moment. Why hadn't Shun called us then? He had his phone with him when he left Murucho's. He could have dialed up his grandfather or one of us for help.

I ducked my head down and looked in the car. His phone was tossed in the cup holder between the driver and passenger seat, and the duffle bag he took with him was still in the back. It was like he had just abandoned his car.

Dan was looking over the car again and said, "This thing has been running for a while. It probably doesn't have much gas or battery life left." I started to scan the snow of the ground for any sign of which way Shun may have gone.

All around me was fresh snow that had covered up anything that had crossed by here. I sighed. Shun couldn't have just vanished without leaving any sign or clue as to where he went. _What if he was kidnapped?_ Dan put his hands on top of his head and said, "Ok. You guys get Kato to drive you up to Shun's grandfather's place, and I'll drive the Mercedes behind you."

We nodded our heads. Julie, Runo, Murucho, and I got back in the limo, while Dan got into Shun's car and backed it out of the ditch. We started back down the road, and night was still coming in fast. There was just a little bit of orange and yellow left in the sky as the day kept up its fight with the coming darkness.

I leaned my head against the window and stared out into the forest. I wished that Shun hadn't left Murucho's. If he stayed, then maybe we wouldn't have been hunting for him once more. I then saw a flash of bright green in the forest. I turned around and looked in the back window behind me, and saw a gray wolf stepping onto the road.

It looked just like the one that bit Shun on his arm. The wolf vanished as we got further down the road. Dan had moved from behind us, and was now beside the limo on the wrong side of the road. Runo rolled her eyes and pulled out her phone. She punched in a number, and I saw Dan pick his phone up and answer it.

Runo yelled in her phone, "Get back on your side of the road!" Dan almost dropped his phone, the slowed down and got back behind the limo. Runo rolled her eyes again and said, "I swear. Shun's missing and that idiot decides to joyride in that car."

I couldn't really blame Dan. For the longest time he had been begging Shun to let him drive that Mercedes, and Shun kept telling him no. So, Dan was just taking up a chance, despite the circumstances. We were now closing in on the dojo, and the gate opened up for us. Kato parked the limo, and Dan parked the Mercedes next to us.

We all got out of the vehicles and stepped into the frigid air. Dan was looking at the front of the Mercedes, which was dented in from where it hit the tree. He shook his head and said, "Shun's going to be pissed off when he sees the damage on the front of this thing. Eh, at least it still runs…..Barely."

Shun's grandfather then walked outside, wearing a long sleeve shirt and sweatpants. Retirement seemed to be doing him good. "Now what was all of that talk about my grandson showing up here? Where is he?" I had to remind myself that we hadn't included Shun's grandfather in on all of the business since the wolf bite.

I summed it up as best as I could. "It's a long story, but Shun said he was coming here and would call us when he did." The old man then turned and saw the damaged Mercedes. "Why do you lot have Shun's car?" Murucho stepped forward and said, "We found it in a ditch on our way here. Without Shun in it of course. It was like he abandoned it."

Shun's grandfather sighed and folded his arms across his chest. He couldn't make any sense of this either. "How about you all come inside and explain to me the whole story. You're also all welcome to stay the night if you wish, since you drove so far out here and nights falling. Along with that snow storm that's supposed to be coming through." We were right at the door of the dojo, but stopped. There was a whining coming from that back.

_Shun_

Blood was pounding through my ears, and my feet cut deep into the freshly fallen snow. I slowly down and came to a walk. The sun was still up in the sky, and night was a long way away. There were so many unfamiliar scents around me, that I was unable to place them all.

I had never been in this forest before. There was no memory of me ever being in it, or how I even got there. It was just like I woke up and was surrounded by the trees and songs of the winter songbirds. I raised my nose up and sniffed the air; snow, other animals, and trees filled my senses.

But something else was here. I tried to identify the smell. Wolf. I wasn't alone out here. I looked around to see if I could spot any, but the scent must have been old because there were no other signs that a pack had been this way. I started walking again, and the snow crunched under my paws.

Snow clung to my jet black fur, and slowly began to melt on me. I froze in my place and strained my ears. There was a gurgling sound up ahead. Running water. I walked towards the sound, and found myself a stream. I lowered my head down for a drink and stared into the water.

Small fish, no bigger than the pebbles at the bottom, tried to fight against the current. My eyes then shifted focus from the fish, to my own reflection in the water. Something about seeing myself, felt strange. This was who and what I was, right? Then why did it feel like I was looking at somebody else?

It was like I didn't remember ever seeing myself like this. The black furred and hazel eyed wolf in the water may have been me, but it didn't feel like it. I was about to get a drink, when I heard a growl behind me. I turned around and was faced with another wolf. I recognized him; gray fur and green eyes. But where I had I seen him before? This was my first time in this forest.

His teeth were bared in a snarl, ears laid back, and hair standing up on his back. Something jogged my memory, and I knew who this wolf was. _Rayden._ How did I know him though? I barely knew myself. I hadn't bowed up at the other wolf. Instead, I just stayed in an alert position. He couldn't have been traveling alone, and I didn't want to take the chance of more of his pack ambushing me while I stayed focused on him.

Rayden stopped growling, and slowly lifted his ears back up. He was finally started to see that I wasn't going to fight back. The hairs along his back started to lay down as well, and I could see his muscles relaxing. I was no threat, and he knew it.

Rayden looked off into the forest, then back at me. He then started to walk off in that direction. _He wants me to follow him._ He was about twenty feet away from me now when he turned his head around and looked back at me. As if asking whether I was going to follow him or not.

My logic was telling me that if he didn't rip my throat out, then he wasn't about to now. So, I followed him. I easily caught up with him. The forest around us started to vanish along with the falling sun. The temperature also dropped, and chilled me through my thick fur. We stopped at a ravine.

I looked at it. I had seen this place, and for some reason I registered it with bad things to come. Rayden then started to scale the side of the ravine, and was at the bottom of it in no time. He looked back up at me, waiting for me to scale the ravine as well.

My footing was unsure as I started down. I felt as if the ground under me was going to give in at any moment. I was almost at the bottom, when I slipped on a rock that had gotten slick with ice. I fell on to the ground, and landed on my side. It wasn't a far enough fall to hurt me, but it had knocked the wind out of my lungs.

When I looked around, I saw other wolves poking their heads out of crevices in the ravine walls. They looked unsure of me, an outsider who was being brought to them. But something in their eyes suggested that they had been expecting me. Almost like they were waiting and wondering when I was going to show up.

But I had no contact with these wolves. One wolf then walked out into the open; brownish, black fur with blue eyes. Another wolf that I recognized. _Wesley._ He looked a lot like Rayden in size and stature, but that was about it. Wesley looked at Rayden, and the gray wolf stalked off.

Then Wesley began to walk off in another direction. My instincts told me that I had to follow him now. Wesley led me into a larger cave at the end of the ravine. It reeked of other wolf and moisture from water dripping from above. But that water was starting to freeze into ice sickles.

We hadn't even gone that deep into the cave when I started to feel tired. I stopped to catch my breath. Wesley turned and looked at me, then walked over next to me and nudged my shoulder with his nose. He didn't want me to stop walking for some reason.

I didn't ask questions, and forced my tired body to move. My legs and muscles in them felt like the blood flowing through them had been replaced with lead. I let out a small whine as the pain got worse. Wesley heard me, but didn't stop to check on me. He just kept walking, and I kept following.

Finally, we were at the end of the cave, and laying down at the end was a large wolf. Bigger than any of the ones I had seen, and much bigger than me. He stood up, and practically made two of me. This was the pack's Alpha. Why had Wesley taken me to him?

Had I mistaken their kindness, and was now being punished for coming into their territory? I thought back to when Rayden found me by the stream, and how ready to fight he looked. The Alpha walked around me. I felt his eyes scanning over me. I watched him as he went by me. He was white, and the white fur slowly turned to gray, and then black from his head and down his back to his tail.

Kind of like the pattern of a husky dog. Escape this was no husky. This was probably a hundred pounds of sheer strength and muscles. His eyes were electric, ice blue. Even bluer that Wesley's. My body shuddered in pain, and I lowered myself down and laid on the cold dirt floor of the cave.

The Alpha looked at Wesley and barked. I didn't know what they were saying. This was a language special to only them. When I thought about it, I wasn't sure how to speak myself. I was a wolf, right? Then I should be able to talk like one and understand other wolves.

But it was as if I had been muted. The Alpha barked again, and Wesley nudged me to get up. I followed him out of the cave, and back into the open. Night was almost upon the forest, and the cold air was biting straight to my bones. Wesley then looked up at the top of the ravine, and then started to scale up the same what that I had gone down.

Again, I followed out of a deeper instinct that I couldn't understand. Somehow I knew that Wesley was trying to help me out. It was no easy task for me to scale up the ravine with the pain that I was feeling, but I managed and fell into the snow when I got to the top.

I let out heavy and tired breaths, but Wesley didn't give me any time to rest. He made me get back up, and pointed out into the forest with his nose. _Go that way._ I looked at him for a moment. I had heard his voice in my head, and it was so familiar. I started off in the direction he pointed me in. I heard his voice again.

_You'll know when to stop. Just keep going that way._ I listened and walked around trees, but made sure that I stayed straight like he had said. The pain was getting almost unbearable now, and I wondered how much longer I could go till I collapsed. Why was I even in this pain from the beginning?

It wasn't like I had ran a lot that day. I started to recognize the trees, and soon I started to identify the scent. This was another place I had been. I walked my way through the trees, and was faced with a garden with bamboo fountains and plants everywhere.

Stone statues in the shapes of lights were also stuck around the garden. _The dojo._ How did I know what this place was? I took another step, and my leg wobbled underneath me. I then fell down into the snowy ground, and let out a whine.

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><p>beh. i had to change the cat box. o.o -shudders- today was pretty good minus trying to injure myself (hurt my knuckles on a door, stubbed my toe, hit my head either on a shelf or french horn case, hurt my ankle when jumping off of the side of a truck, and hitting the back of my foot on a desk) o.o i've been very danger prone today...but the good thing to come out of this is that me and my ex are back on speaking terms. oh listen to me babbling on about my issues. read, review, and other things. ~Copperpelt~<p> 


	10. Storm Warning

_Alice_

Shun's grandfather stopped right at the door and growled. "Must be the neighbor's dog again. They can't keep that thing in their own yard." He walked away from the door, and started to go behind the dojo to see the source of the whining. We caught up with him and now we were right behind him. The old man threw out his arms to stop us from walking.

I wasn't paying attention, and ran into his arm, startling myself as I did. I looked around him to see what was ahead of us. All of us were quiet. Laying in the snow, was a wolf. Snow was sticking to its fur, and leaving little white specks against the black. When it let out another whine, it was a sure bet that this was what was making the noise.

Shun's grandfather growled and said, "Those wolves better start thinking again if they think they're going to start coming onto my property." He looked around and his eyes fell on an old, torn apart broom that was leaning against the wall. He grabbed it and was swinging it around in the air. "Go on! Get!" I grabbed his arm and stopped him before he got any closer to the wolf.

I asked him, "Don't you think that's a little uncalled for? I mean, the thing can barely move. I seriously doubt it's going to run just cause you're trying to scare him off." The old man looked at me with stone solid eyes. "I just don't want those things thinking they can add my property onto their's. As long as they don't show up around here, I have no problem with them."

I still had a firm grip on the old man's arm, but I knew he could shake me off if he wanted to. He sighed and said, "Fine. I'll leave him alone, but if he's still there in the morning then I'll take care of him however I feel." I nodded my head and accepted his agreement.

Shun's grandfather put the broken broom back up against the wall like it was when he grabbed it. I turned back to the wolf. Its eyes were shut tight, and its body was twisting and convulsing in pain. It kicked one of its back feet, and snow flew up in the air.

Another whine escaped the animal, and it was filled with more agony than the one we had heard earlier. I started to walk over to the wolf, and knelt down in the snow next to it. Behind me, Dan said, "Alice, have you gone crazy? Get away from that thing before it bites you."

I remained knelt beside the wolf, but turned my head to meet Dan's face. "I'm not going to get bitten, Dan." The wolf in front of me could have placed a bite on my arm if it wanted to, but I felt like that wouldn't happen. The animal's twitching and twisting had ceased somewhat, and one of the eyes opened up and looked at me. They were hazel or amber in color. _They look kind of like Shun's._

In fact, when I looked closer they were almost the same color. I didn't think much of it, because I had seen pictures of wolves with all kinds of different colored eyes. The fact that they were the same color as Shun's didn't raise any flags for me. The wolf raised its head a few inches from the ground, and stared at me.

Then, it started to sniff the air around me. I held out my hand for it to take in my scent. I heard Runo behind me say, "Alice, be careful. It might still bite you." If this wolf wanted to bite me, it would have done it already. My palm was still outstretched to the wolf, and then I felt it press its nose into the palm of my hand.

I then ran my hand down the scruff of its neck, and felt every single one of the silky smooth hairs. I hadn't ever petted a wolf before, and there was something exhilarating about it. Maybe it was the fact that it was a wild animal that was giving me that little bit of a rush.

The falling snow around me started to pick up, along with the wind. Shun's grandfather looked up at the dark sky and said, "That storms moving in quicker than I thought. We need to go inside." I stood, and heard the wolf whine again. I almost hated to leave it out in the storm, but I knew there was no way that Shun's grandfather was about to let a wild animal into his house.

Much less one that he had just tried to shoo away with a broom. It was much warmer inside of the dojo than it was outside, and I slipped out of my purple jacket and draped it across the back of a chair in the kitchen. The whole building smelled of tea.

There was also the faint, pungent odor of vapor rub drifting around as well. Shun's grandfather guided us through the dojo and into a sitting room. It was the only room with the fewest ninja weapons, and I felt a little bit better knowing that I wouldn't turn around and get poked by a sword or throwing star. We all sat down on the couches, and Shun's grandfather offered us something to drink.

None of us took him up on the offer, so he sat down and cleared his throat. "Now explain to me what's been going on." Murucho was telling him the story, but I was gazing out of the window at the snowstorm that was going on outside.

Somewhere out there was Shun. I hoped he was anywhere else but those woods where I had seen another wolf. The one that looked like the gray one who bit Shun's arm. I was pretty sure it was the same wolf too, though. With only the sound of the heater running and Murucho's voice, the dojo was dead silent.

There was then a chorus of howls outside. There was something mournful about them that sent a chill down my spine. They then quieted down. Shun's grandfather said, "Those wolves have become rather restless lately. I don't know why. Perhaps it's the weather."

I started to wonder if that black wolf was still laying outside in the snow. He was surely going to freeze to death if he didn't find someplace warmer and sheltered from the storm. While I had been zoned out, Murucho had finished telling Shun's grandfather everything that had happened the past week.

Murucho added in, "Shun was supposed to tell you all of this when he got here, but as you can see he still hasn't shown up yet." Common sense was telling me that there was no way that Shun was going to show up at his grandfather's dojo that night.

Not unless Shun had lost his mind and tried to find his way through the snowstorm. The old man stood up, and I heard his joints pop when he did. "I'd call the police or somebody to look for him, but the with this weather there's no way anybody is getting out on those streets.

Sadly, it'll have to wait till the morning when this blows over." I hated to agree with him, but I knew if we called the police now they'd tell us that exact thing. "You all are still welcome to stay the night here. I have plenty of spare rooms." He took us around the dojo and showed us all the rooms.

There were almost enough for everybody, except me. I'd have to either bunk with Runo or Julie, or sleep on the couch. I didn't mind either one, though. The elderly man then told me, "You can take Shun's room if you don't want to sleep on that uncomfortable couch." I blinked in surprise.

I thought back to that couch. I might not have minded sleeping on it, but those springs would eventually start causing me some pain. I said sheepishly, "I guess that would be ok." I followed the old man down the hall and he stopped in front of the room that was Shun's.

He turned the knob and swung open the door for me. I stepped into the room and looked around. It was exactly how I pictured Shun's room, but it was close. There were a few ninja weapons hung up on the wall like I expected, but other than that the walls were pretty much bare.

A few pictures of his mother were hung up, along with a few of the Brawlers from when we first met each other. _We looked so different back then. Well, expect Dan. He didn't change much._ I smiled and looked around the room some more. I wasn't about to overstep my boundaries by going through his stuff, so I just scanned what was out in the open.

Last thing I wanted to do was stumble on something that was personal of his. I yawned and finally realized how tired I was, and how late it had gotten. I turned around and stared at Shun's bed. A blush crossed my face, and I wished that his grandfather hadn't offered me this room.

_It's no different than when you go and stay at a hotel._ I fought through the awkwardness and sat down on the edge of the bed. It felt like it was barely even slept in. I didn't doubt that with as much as Shun stayed over at Murucho's instead of the dojo. I laid down on my side and rested my head down on the pillow.

I let out a sigh. There was a the faint scent of the cologne that Shun occasionally wore. It was mellow and toned down like him. Unlike the colognes that Dan wore every now and then that almost burned your sinuses.

The heater was hot enough that I didn't even bother getting under the blankets. Slowly, I closed my eyes and fell asleep right as another chorus of howls wailed off in the distance.

_Shun_

I let out a groan when I woke up. My eyes slowly opened up, and I was almost buried in snow. I forced my groggy body to sit up and when I did the snow that was on my back fell off. My muscles felt like I had been hit repeatedly with a metal rod. I knew some of it was from being in the freezing snow, but it was the other part that caused me to worry.

The last solid memory I had was of me driving to my grandfather's dojo. When I looked around, I realized that I had somehow made my way there. _But I crashed my Mercedes. How did I get all the way here?_ I pushed myself up to my feet, and my cold body stumbled closer to the dojo.

_Please tell me that old man didn't lock it up tonight._ I slowly reached for the knob, and turned it. It stopped halfway, and I growled. _Dammit, Grandfather!_ I walked around the dojo towards my room window. I knew that it always stayed unlocked, and might have been my only way inside that didn't require a key.

I stopped at the window, then heard howls in the woods. The droning noise sparked a memory. I knew how I had gotten to the dojo. Wesley had pointed me back while I was a wolf. _I…Was actually a wolf._ _And Wesley was one too._ I had retained a memory from while I was a wolf.

Could that mean that my body was starting to accept the results of the bite? I shook my head and got my fingers under the window of my room. I forced the frozen edges of the window open, and climbed in my room. Quickly, I turned around and shut the window back and absorbed the warm air from the heater.

I then stopped, and looked down at my bed. Somebody was in it. I walked quietly up to the bed, and pulled the blanket down a little to see the face of the person. It was Alice. _What's she doing here?_ Another memory came back to me of her knelling beside me, but I didn't know what else was going on.

Had she found me as wolf? If she did, had she recognized me somehow? I quickly hurried out of my room and down the hall. One of the spare room doors were open, and I saw somebody else laying in the bed. It looked like Murucho. _Are all of the others here?_ I checked the other rooms and eventually found Julie, Dan, and Runo as well.

_They must have come here looking for me._ I remembered how I told them that I'd call when I got to the dojo. Odds were they had grown worried about me and come out here to see if everything was alright, and my grandfather had probably allowed them to stay the night.

My body shivered as the last bit of chill left my body. I stopped at a hall closet and grabbed a blanket, then sat down on the couch in the sitting room and draped that blanket over my body.

I laid my head down on the armrest and stared blankly in front of me. What else could I remember if I tried? I didn't find out though, because I fell asleep before I could dig any deeper.

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><p>-hears Thriller- o.o this can only be my dad. -looks around then starts dancing- lol. i couldnt help myself. check out profile for cover for this story and poll if you haven't done so. read, review, and other things. ~Copperpelt~<p> 


	11. There You Are

_Alice_

Morning songbirds and the howling wind served me as my alarm clock that morning. I sat up and stretched my arms above my head. I had slept pretty good that night once I got used to the fact that was in Shun's room and sleeping in his bed. I turned my body and let my feet hang off the bed.

They just barely did touch the wood floors. A sudden chill came over my body, and I looked at the window. It was lifted up about an inch. "Now how did that get opened up?" I stood up from the bed and pushed the window down so no more cold air would come into the room. I looked out of the glass panes at the snowy wonderland that had emerged out of last night's storm.

Murucho's limo and Shun's Mercedes both had a mound of snow on top and around them. Even though the window was closed, it was still cold to stand next to the glass as the outside air cut through it and seeped into the room. I walked away from the window and stepped into the hall.

I looked both ways down the hall, and found the bathroom. I shut the door behind me and turned the sink on. Once the water was at a comfortable temperature for me, I pulled my hair back and cupped my hands under the faucet. When my hands were full of water, I splashed my face to wash away the last bit of sleep that was still clinging to me.

My eyes were shut tight to keep water from getting in them, and I felt around blindly for a towel. When I found one, I buried my face in it and dried off. The sink was still running, and that seemed to be the only sound I could hear. _I guess the others are still sleeping._

I turned the tap off and walked out of the bathroom. While the others were still sleeping, I decided that I'd go and find me something to eat then go outside and see if that wolf ever left. I walked right through the living room, not even noticing that somebody was on the couch.

I glanced around in the fridge for something that I could eat that Shun's grandfather wouldn't care about. I found a cheese slice, and looked around in the cabinets and found a loaf of bread. Easily, I found the toaster that was next to the wall, and I pulled it closer to me.

I then dropped the two pieces of bread into the toaster and pushed the little switch down. Soon, the kitchen started to smell like bread that was being burned. The toast had popped up while I was looking around the kitchen to pass the time, and I jumped from the sudden surprise.

I hated always being startled by toasters. Quickly, I found a plate and put the two pieces of hot toast on it, then unwrapped the cheese slice and laid it down on the slightly burned bread. Taking my plate with me, I walked over to the table and sat down. In no time I finished my make-shift cheese sandwich, and washed the crumbs off the plate and put it back where I found it.

Feeling better after my little breakfast, I grabbed my jacket that I placed on the back of the chair in the kitchen, and stepped outside into the cool morning. The rising sun sparkled on the white snow. The snow crunched under my shoes as I trudged towards the back of the dojo.

When I got to the back, I looked around to see if I could find the wolf. It was gone. I made sure it was really gone, and not buried somewhere underneath the snow. I didn't see him anywhere under the snow. Holding the sides of my arms to hold in heat to my body,

I started back towards the front of the dojo. I walked back into the kitchen and stomped the snow off of my shoes and pants. After I took my jacket off again and placed it back on the chair at the kitchen table, I walked back into the living room and stopped.

How had I not noticed that somebody was laying on that couch? More importantly, how had I not noticed that it was _Shun_? A blanket was carelessly thrown over his body, and one of his hands was halfway hanging off the couch. I blinked a few times, thinking that he might vanish and not be on that couch.

When had he gotten there? "Uh, Shun?" He moved and lifted his head up and looked around the room before his eyes finally found me. His hair was messed up from where he was sleeping. He sat up on the couch and rubbed his eye. "Alice?"

A flood of relief slammed into me now that I was a hundred percent sure that he was really there in front of me. He put his hands on his back and said, "I remember why I didn't like sleeping on this couch now. It screws up your back like no tomorrow." He then stood up, and the blanket that was on his lap fell to the floor next to his feet. Then, without even realizing it, I ran up to him and threw my arms around him in a hug.

"Shun! It's really you!" I looked up at him and saw his eyes were wide with surprise. "Uh, yeah. It's me. I don't know who else it'd be." An intense blush slapped me in my face when I saw that I was hugging him, and I quickly let go of him and took a few steps back.

"I'm sorry. It's just, all of us were really worried about you." Dan and the others then walked into the living room, still all looking groggy and half awake. Dan asked, "What the heck is with all the-…Shun?" They all looked awake now with the sight of our missing friend. Shun waved at them and his face looked like he was saying, _"Hello? Right here and alive. Nothing to get worked up over."_

Julie then pushed through Dan and Runo and tackled Shun just like I had. Except Julie knew she was doing this, and she wasn't blushing like I had been. The others then ran up to Shun, and when they got there Julie let go of him. Murucho looked up at him and said, "Where have you been?" Shun stared down at the floor in front of him and looked to be thinking intensely.

"I'm not entirely sure. It's just like when I ran off from the hospital; I don't remember much of what happened." Just by looking into his eyes, I was able to see that he was lying. Maybe not about all of what he was saying, but he definitely knew something about what happened to him. Shun's grandfather then walked into the room, and he looked surprised like the others when he first saw Shun. "Shun! Where have you been!"

His voice was sharp and piercing, but I was sure that deep down inside the old man was relieved and happy to see that his grandson was all right. _Talk about your tough love._ Runo said in a matter-of-fact tone, "He doesn't remember much of what happened to him."

His grandfather let out a huff of amusement and said sarcastically, "So you don't remember, huh?" Shun shook his head slowly, and was looking at the old man as if he had lost his mind. "I really don't." I saw that lie in his eyes. Was I the only one able to pick it out in those amber orbs of his?

The others' intuition must have been worse that I thought. His grandfather closed his eyes and sighed. "I believe you. Are you hurt in any way?" Shun shook his head again. "Not that I can tell." _I knew that old guy was concerned about Shun._ I mentally smiled to myself.

_And Shun always said his grandfather was coldhearted. _His grandfather then asked, "How did you get in the dojo? I locked all of the doors when I went to bed last night." Shun looked down the hall where all of the rooms were at. "I got in through my room window since it's never locked."

He then looked over at me. Now I knew why he was sleeping on the couch. Because he was going to sleep in his bed, but I was already in it. I blushed again, thinking about how he saw me in his room. Worse, in his bed. I felt embarrassed. _Maybe he didn't think anything of it._

He then added, "And then it felt like I was thrown into the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears when I found somebody else in my bed." The tip of his mouth curved up into a grin, and my blush darkened. _Kill me now._

His grandfather shook his head and said, "Well, I can see that you're feeling fine. In that case, I'm going into town to pick up some things. Your friends can stay if they want to. It doesn't matter to me." Now that Shun was verified as well, his grandfather didn't have much of a reason to be concerned about him anymore.

But I still could see through him and could tell that he still cared. No matter what Shun said or thought otherwise. The old man grabbed his jacket and left us all in the dojo. Shun turned to us and said, "Hey, you guys wouldn't have happened by chance found my Mercedes last night on the way over here?"

Dan smiled and said, "As a matter of fact, we did. It's outside right now. By the way, the battery is going to need to be changed, and there are some major repairs for the front waiting for it." Shun growled, then turned back to Dan. "And how exactly did my car get back here? Did you call a wrecker for it?"

Dan tried to act innocent before he said, "Well, you see. I decided to play the good friend and drove it back here." Shun's eyes widened and he snapped, "You drove my Mercedes! I thought I told you I didn't want you anywhere near it!" Dan held up his hands in defense.

"Calm down, dude. I didn't damage it or anything. Would you have rather had Julie drive it instead?" Julie was the worst driver on the face of the planet at the time. She had damaged two cars already in the past month. Now she was on her third, and bets were placed to see how long that vehicle would last.

Julie pouted her lip and said, "Hey! I take offense to that, Dan!" Those two were starting to fight with each other, and Runo stepped between them and yelled, "Shut up! You're giving me a headache with your loudmouths!" I couldn't take it anymore, and covered my mouth with my hand and laughed.

Shun was even smiling at their bickering, but I knew that he was also devising a plan to get Dan back for driving that Mercedes without his knowledge. When everything finally calmed down, Shun asked us, "Are my things still in my car?"

Dan nodded his head and said, "I think they are. I saw that duffle bag you left with in the back if that's what you're talking about." Shun nodded his head. "That's it. I'm going to run outside and get it." He hurried out of the dojo, and Julie and Dan were trying to start up that argument again.

But Murucho and Runo worked together to stop it. Shun came back inside holding the black duffle bag. "It's starting to snow out there again." I glanced out of a window across the room and saw a light flurry was starting up. It didn't look like it would amount to anything like last night.

Odds were that it would die out in a few hours. Kato the walked in the room and saw all of us standing around. "Oh. I'm sorry if I interrupted your conversations. I see you found Master Shun." Shun waved at him, and Kato bowed in his formal manner. I had completely forgotten that Kato was staying in the dojo with us.

Murucho asked his loyal butler, "Do you think the roads are cleared from the storm and safe to travel?" Kato shrugged his shoulders and said, "I haven't heard anything about the status of the streets. The city may have scattered salt out on the roads by now and cleared off the snow.

Most likely the highway has been cleared for a long time." The highway that was built to replace the back road that led to the dojo, and had become a major artery for faster and quicker routes to get to where people needed to go.

By building that road, it practically left the back route to the dojo was left to die out and become nonexistent. Since it was of such importance, the odds of that highway being accessible again were very high. If something happened to that highway, then there would be nothing short of sheer pandemonium amongst the daily commuters that used that road on a daily basis.

And since the city wasn't in chaos, that probably meant the road was cleaned of its snow and ice. Murucho then said to Kato, "If you think the roads are clear, do you feel like driving us back to my place? Since now that we know Shun's ok and safe."

Kato replied with, "If you're ready to go, then I'll go ahead and warm up the limo's engine." Murucho nodded his head and Kato walked out of the dojo. I heard the engine crank up outside.

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><p>announcement: there will be no uploads Friday and possibly Saturday since i have another band clinic. there may also not be one tuesday (depends if i feel like uploading) and there will not be one on the 9th because i had a pageant that day. sorry. : well, check out the poll and cover if you haven't. read, review, and other things. ~Copperpelt~


	12. A Part Of Something Much Bigger

_Shun_

I stood outside of the dojo and watched Murucho's limo drive off down the street. When they were finally out of sight, I let out a sigh. _Finally. _I then glanced over at my Mercedes and groaned. I didn't think that I had ran into that tree fast enough to cause as much damage that was on the front, but apparently I had. I walked back inside, and shut the door behind me.

There was an echo in the house when the door slammed shut. I scooped up my duffle bag that I brought inside from my car, then dropped it down on the kitchen table. I pawed around in the bag to make sure that the others hadn't rummaged around in it or anything.

Everything still seemed to be how it was when I packed it up the other morning. I then checked in a small pocket on the inside of the bag, and checked the syringes. There were still five in there, all of them still filled with the cortisol that would be the only thing to keep me human when adrenaline threatened to make me change. I took them out of the bag and hurried back to my room to hide them.

I wanted to go ahead and get them out of the way in case the others came back for one reason or another. Not feeling like wasting several minutes to find a decent hiding place for them, I just tossed them in a dresser draw and walked back into the kitchen to retrieve the duffle bag I left on the table.

I grabbed the handles, and caught a glimpse of somebody in the kitchen. At first glance I thought it was my grandfather, but when I turned to face the person, I saw it was Wesley. Surprise caused my heart to speed up a little, but quickly and easily I slowed it back to a normal pace before it could cause me any pain.

Instead of seeing him as just another person, I saw him as what else he was. A wolf. I had been in the forest as one myself and met both him and his cousin, Rayden. I wasn't sure how Rayden looked as a human though, since I had only seen him as a wolf on two occasions.

One of those occasions wasn't a very pleasant one either. Wesley pulled out one of the chairs that was under the table, and sat down on it. "What are you doing here?"

Wesley looked at me, his elbows resting on the table. "I'm here to make sure that you weren't still running around on four feet." I leaned against the doorframe to the kitchen and folded my arms across my chest. "You really weren't lying about all of that wolf stuff."

I was still in a semi-state of denial, but it only seemed fair that I had that luxury of finally realizing that I was now a freak. Wesley raised one of his eyebrows. "You still thought I was lying to you? Even after giving you that cortisol and everything else? What did you think half of the time? That I was some crazy person who decided to play a prank on the guy who got bitten by a wolf and make him think that he was going to turn into one? Come on. Even I'm not that warped."

That thought never even crossed my mind. I was too busy fighting my own personal thoughts than whatever Wesley's motives were for telling me about the wolves. "I believed you, I just didn't want to," I said. Wesley chuckled. "Yeah. That's actually more common than you'd think." I noticed the end of a Zip-lock bag sticking out of his pocket. "What's that?"

Wesley looked down and pulled the bag out. He held it up, and revealed the contents through the clear plastic. Another five or six syringes. He said, "I didn't know how many you may have gone through, so I brought some extras." He threw me the bag, and I caught it without any problems.

"Thanks, but I haven't used any of the other ones you gave me. You can keep these. I have plenty." Wesley shook his head, and a serious look was carved into his eyes. "You need them more than anyone else in the pack." I placed the Zip-lock bag of syringes on the kitchen counter next to me.

"Why? What makes me any different from the others? They can shift from adrenaline too, right?" Wesley nodded his head. "Yeah, but you're the only one who still has friends and family that don't know about what's really happened to you. The rest of us have lost any previous connections we've had to keep our secrets from the ones we cared about. And to also keep ourselves safe."

I shifted my weight from foot to foot. "But your families had to of called somebody to go look for you when they saw you were missing." Wesley popped his knuckles one by one when he said, "We all thought that through before leaving. A lot of the pack members faked their deaths. Not exactly the smartest move since now they have to be extremely careful not to be recognized. Others just simply staged a way to get cut off from their families, or said they were moving away and didn't tell anyone to where."

Would I have to become one of these lost people? Never to be heard of again, or pronounced dead after the police wouldn't be able to find my 'missing' body? I could just see the worried and saddened faces of my friends. I shook my head.

"I'm not going to do that. I'm not going to vanish off the face of the Earth just to keep something secret that I didn't even want in the first place." Wesley sighed and folded his hands together, then placed them on the table. "That's what all of the new wolves say, and it usually doesn't take them very long to see that disappearing is the best thing they can do."

I narrowed my eyes at him and felt my jaw tighten. "So far I haven't been like the other new wolves, remember? I've taken longer to heal and retain my memories. Why should this be any different from anything else?" Wesley held my gaze when he said, "Fine. You can go and play with this fire for however long you feel like. But when this blows up in your face, I don't want to hear any whining when your own family sends somebody out to hunt and kill you. I have seen that happen one too many times."

I growled at, then remembered something. The harsh words that Wesley had just told me didn't exist anymore. They were replaced with older words. Ones full of warning and threats to come. "Have you heard anything about the wolf hunt?" Wesley's entire demeanor changed.

He no longer looked serious, but more shocked and in disbelief. "They're actually going to do that?" I nodded my head. "The city issued it after one of the wolves killed a kid a few days ago." Wesley stood up, shaking his head and running a hand through his hair. "Dammit, Rayden."

I stared at him. "Rayden was the one who killed that kid?" He was pacing back and forth now. "Yeah. He told me that he didn't hurt the kid enough to kill him. Rayden didn't mean to hurt the kid though. He only acted out of instinct." Was Rayden acting out of instinct when he bit me and caused my life to spiral into one that shouldn't even be real? "Now they're going to hunt us," said Wesley, who still sounded like he was in shock.

Before I could say something else, Wesley cut me off. "When are they going through with this? If I know then I might be able to move the pack out of the forest and hide them. Most of them can shift back and forth on their own will, but with the stress of their lives hanging in the balance, it might not be as easy."

I counted the days back to when I was in the hospital and heard the news report. "If I remember right, it should be sometime in January. All they said was that it would take place in a month to give the hunt enough time to gather up volunteers." Wesley nodded his head again.

"A month. That should be plenty of time to get the pack out of harms way. Wait. The beginning of January?" I nodded my head slowly. "Around that time. Maybe within the first two weeks. Why?" Worry was on his face. "No reason. Listen, I have to get going and start warning the others." I stopped him before he could leave. "Wait up. I'm the one who knows more about this than you. Don't you think I should help out?"

Wesley narrowed his eyes at me. "No. This isn't your fight. It would be best if you stayed out of it, or else you're just going to get caught up in this mess." I grabbed his wrist and pulled him back from the door. "I am already a part of this mess thanks to Rayden. So, I do believe this is my fight as well."

Wesley snatched his arm from my grip and said sharply, "You're still unstable, you still don't know everything, and you're still in contact with all of your friends and family. All of those factors are running too much of a risk to have you in this. You'd be safer just staying here and trying to get a grip on when you shift."

I stared at him, unable to think of anything to say back to him. He turned around and walked out of the dojo. I ran to the open door and watched as he turned into the brownish-black wolf that I had seen on several occasions. He then vanished into the woods.

I didn't care what he said. I was going to find a way to help out, and keep the hunters from killing those wolves. When I thought about it, they'd be killing humans. Not just wolves. Without even knowing it. I thought back to how Wesley reacted when I told him about the proximity time of the hunt.

I slammed the door and looked around the house for a calendar. Eventually, I found one for the next year and opened it up to January. I scanned the squares for anything that was going to happen in that two week span. Other than New Year's Day and a few other holidays later in the month, there wasn't anything out of the norm.

The only other thing in the two weeks was a full moon. I raised an eyebrow. The whole shifting-during-a-full-moon thing was a stereotype. There had been the day I got out of the hospital and stayed the night at Murucho's, and I hadn't shifted. We didn't work like that. I folded the calendar and put it back where I found it. Maybe Wesley knew something that I didn't. _Well duh he knows something that I don't._

I grabbed the Zip-lock bag of syringes and walked back to my room. I threw them in the dresser drawer with the others and sat down on my bed. I then bent over and pulled my laptop out from underneath the bed, and turned it on.

My background image loaded up with the rest of the icons, and I clicked on the internet. Just to see what results I'd get, I typed in different variations of what I was looking for. _Wolves, Werewolves, Moon Phases._ I added those words together in everyway I could possibly think of, until one result caught my attention. It hadn't been updated in years, but it seemed to be something that could help.

The title was _Ready For The Wolfsbane Moon?_ Curiosity made me click the link, and I was taken to an old news article that had actually been written at the turn of the last century. I started to read it slowly, making sure that I didn't miss anything that would stand out.

The whole thing just seemed to be about a special moon phase that only happened every so many hundred years. Or about that amount. I read and found out why the moon phase got its name. It was given to it because back in 15 century Europe, people believed that the 'werewolves' got stronger and more feral on that certain moon.

I didn't see anything special about the moon other than after all of those years it fell into a closer orbit to the Earth and the sun's light made it appear red. Red. My mind went back to the dream I had when the hunt was happening.

The moon in the sky was huge in that dream, and almost a blood red. Had that been the Wolfsbane Moon that I was reading about in the article? I bookmarked the page on my computer, and even wrote down the link on a piece of scrap paper in case my laptop decided to do something stupid and not save the page.

I'd have to look into this more. I kept on reading and found that exact days that had been predicted for the moon for the next several hundred years. I looked up the closest moon to us now, which was next month. In January. This had to be what Wesley was freaking out over.

But all of the werewolf myths and such weren't true. There was no shifting in a full moon. No death by a silver bullet. The only thing that was true was when you were bitten you turned into one. I could verify that statement right there. I really doubted that this moon phase made the wolves become more violent.

The Europeans back then believed that every moon would bring on a 'werewolf' attack, so I didn't doubt that paranoia had sent them over the edge enough to make some assumption about a red moon making the wolves go insane. I turned my laptop off and stuck it back under my bed.

I then laid on my back and stared up at the ceiling. Wolfsbane Moon. It all sounded to ludicrous to be anything other than an old folk tale or superstition. Then again, I was thinking the same thing about being a wolf. How much of what I thought wasn't true, actually was? How deep in the dark was I?

I then caught the scent of something sweet. I rolled over on my stomach and put my nose to my pillow and sniffed. It was perfume. Alice's at that. I then reminded myself that she was sleeping in my bed after I changed back into a human and snuck back into the dojo.

The thought of abandoning any of my friends hurt, but not as much as when I thought about having to leave Alice behind. I knew now that everything had stopped making sense, that I wouldn't be able to help her try and understand any of it.

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><p>ok. same old same old. check out profile for cover and a poll if you havent done so already. <strong>no upload tomorrow, possibly saturday, or next thursday on the 9th.<strong> read, review, and other things. ~Copperpelt~


	13. She Wolf

_Shun_

My grandfather had startled me out of my sleep. "Shun! I'm back!" His loud and echoing voice bounced around the empty dojo and into my room, where I was jolted awake from my light sleep. "Where are you at?" I groaned and sat up. "In my room trying to sleep."

I heard the shuffling of his sandals on the wood floor, then he opened my room's door and stood in the frame. "Well, naptime's over. I have things that need to be done, and you've got to help with some of them." He then stalked off, leaving me with a feeling of aggravation brewing inside. _Yeah. Make me work after being told that I was 'sick' and missing for a night. I can feel the love._

Officially aggravated, I laid back down in my bed and covered my head up with my blanket. Maybe I'd get lucky and he'd forget or get sidetracked. No. My grandfather never did that. I growled from under the blanket. _Coming here might have been a bad idea._

To get my mind off of my grandfather, I tried to remember what I might have dreamed about. What I really wanted to know was if I had had another wolf dream, or one about the hunt again. I couldn't remember. It could have just been a plain, generic dream with no meaning behind it at all. "Shun! Get up!"

I threw my covers off of me and stomped out of my room, and found my grandfather in the kitchen. I said, "Let's get this over with." He narrowed his eyes at me. "Watch it. I'm not cutting you any slack because you were sick earlier in the week, because you look like you feel fine now. And if you look like you feel fine, then you can help out."

I thought back to when Alice said something a long time ago about how my grandfather did care. _I'm still debating on that._ He scribbled down on a piece of paper, and then handed it to me. I took it, and read down the list of things he wanted me to do. None of it looked too strenuous, so I'd probably not shift from doing any of the chores. I sighed and went ahead and got started.

_Alice_

We got lucky after we left the dojo. The city had sent maintenance workers to clear off the highway, and they had just finished up when we drove through to get back to Murucho's. We still had another fifteen minutes till we got back to Murucho's, so I allowed my mind to wander.

I had noticed something about Shun; other than the blatant lie about not knowing where he was. No, I had noticed something else about him. He seemed different, but I couldn't place how. Whatever he was keeping hidden inside of him, I just wished he'd tell me or one of the others.

Maybe then some peace would be brought to my mind about what's been going on with him. I also still didn't buy the whole story about him being fine either. Somebody who was fine one moment, crashed his car, vanished, and then showed up the next day completely unscathed wasn't fine or well in my opinion.

All during that time something had happened to him, and he knew exactly what it was. He might not have known the first time he vanished, but he knew this time. At least bits and pieces of it at the most. I wanted to go back to that dojo and confront him.

Demand him to tell me what he was hiding from us. Shun had kept one too many secrets in his lifetime, and he had learned a long time ago not to keep them. They only resulted in harming himself, and it took him almost all of his life to figure that out.

I hadn't noticed that the limo was parked in front of Murucho's. The others had already stepped outside, and Dan was standing in front of the open limo's door. "You coming inside, Alice? Or staying in there?" I shook myself back to Earth and climbed out. It was starting to snow again.

Julie groaned and said, "When is this freaky weather going to end!" Murucho told her in a smarty-pants tone, "It's going to be winter in a few days, Julie. This weather isn't going anywhere for a while." This only made Julie whine more. "At least I can wear my cute snow boots I got last year," said Julie in an slightly optimistic tone. Our group hurried inside before the snow picked up more and ended up freezing us.

After we at our dinner, we sat around in our usual sitting area and talked. I stayed out of the conversations and had pulled out my phone. I was staring at the screen, debating on whether to text Shun real quick. But what would I say?

I might seem kind of stalkerish if I just went and butted randomly in his business. I had a right to know how he was though, right? Eventually, reasoning overcame want, and I put my phone back up. I'd talk Murucho into calling him in the morning to check up on him. It would seem less pushy if it was somebody like Murucho, who was almost like the speaker of the group when it came to phone calls.

"Hey, Murucho. Can we turn on that TV and hear the news real quick? My Dad was supposed to be mentioned in some report today," said Dan. Murucho nodded his head and searched around for the remote to the little flat screen that was in the room gathering dust from not being used very often.

Finally, Murucho located the remote and started to flip through channels until he found the city's main news station. They were just wrapping up the report. Dan whined, "Dang. I missed it. Oh well. It'll probably come on again later." Before the TV was turned back off, they were starting up with another story about the wolf hunt that would take place in a few weeks. "Don't turn it off. I want to hear this."

Murucho left the TV on, and I listened to the report. The first thought in my mind was that they might have been moving the hunt up, but instead it was just a reminder and announcement that there was still a need for more volunteers. I felt disgusted at the people who were participating in this hunt. It was so uncalled for and overkill.

There were so many other ways that this could be done, but instead they opted for mass slaughter. The news station started showing footage of the wolves in the forest next to the park as they explained again why this hunt was going to take place. I shook my head.

"This is wrong. And they know it good and well." Runo nodded her head and said, "I agree with Alice." I glanced at Murucho. He had an uncle in that worked with the city, and was told that the city officials didn't want to put this hunt into action. But the people who were demanding that hunt to happen had eventually overcome the patience they had.

That was how this happened. It was only a means to keep the citizens, who were going crazy about this, under control. As far as I knew, the city officials still didn't want this to happen. _They have the power to stop this, but they're not going to. Not as long as these people are still wound up about the death of that kid._

I sighed. I could see that the others agreed that this hunt was wrong. What was Shun's standpoint in this? I was sure that even despite being bitten by one, he didn't want them killed. That just didn't seem like the Shun that I knew.

Then again, today seemed like I was looking at another Shun. A side that I hadn't ever seen before. It wasn't necessarily a bad side, but it wasn't his usual side either. Another tired sigh escaped me. I needed to relax my mind and get my thoughts in order like they were before everything got all confusing.

_Shun_

I had finally finished up that list, and ran to the old storage building we used for training equipment. I pushed open the door and walked inside. _That old man won't find me in here._ This was the place, other than the roof, that I went to when I needed to hide from my grandfather's never ending to-do lists. This was also the place that I had spent a lot of my time in and thinking.

There were even several times when I had fallen asleep in the old storage building after a long night of thinking. Ninja weapons, boxes, and other junk that couldn't fit in the dojo, were stuffed in the building. It seemed much more crowded than the last time I was in there, and I guessed my grandfather had added to the collection. I made my way through the towers of boxes and towards the loft in the back.

Originally, this building was intended to be a guest house, but it didn't stay that way with my grandfather. The ladder that led up to the loft had fallen over. I picked it up and put it back where it belonged when I heard something to my right.

I went ahead and placed the ladder back in its spot, then turned towards the sound. Since the wolf bite and shifts, my senses had improved ten fold. So this noise could have just been a little mouse. I had to move more boxes to get to the source, and when I moved one more I saw what was making the noise.

There was a wolf in the very back of the building, hunkered down and ears laid back as far as they could go. My first reaction was to run, but then I reminded myself that I was one of them now. I had no reason to run. Who was this though?

I didn't recognize them from when I had been brought to the pack in the woods. The closer I got to the animal, then further back it pressed its body into the wall. Soon, it would discover that it didn't have anywhere else to run. "I'm not going to hurt you." Its eyes never moved from mine. No matter which way I went or moved, those gold wolf eyes followed my every movement.

I knelt down on my knees to get level with the animal, and slowly its ears stood up. I wasn't seen as much of a threat now. Then, the animal shifted. A girl now was knelt against the wall. She looked about Alice's or my age, and long blonde hair fell below her shoulders. Her eyes remained as gold as they were when she was a wolf. I asked, "How'd you get in here?"

Her eyes still told me that she wasn't all that sure about me. "I wandered in here a couple of nights ago after getting lost in the woods and caught in the snowstorm." Her clothes were torn and tattered from getting caught on things in the woods. "If you've been in here for a couple of days, then I'm sure you're probably hungry." Her eyes lit up with the chance of food. "Just a little bit."

I nodded my head and made a mental note to bring something out to her. "What's your name?" I asked. She stayed quiet for a moment, and I could see she was debating on whether or not to tell me. "….Mary-Lynn." By the pause she did before saying her name, I knew she wasn't being honest.

"That's a nice name. Now tell me your real one." Her eyes widened when I caught on to her lie. "How did you know I was giving you a fake name?" I moved my weight around on my feet, which were hurting from being knelt down and bent. "I'm just good like that. You can tell me your name. I'm on your side. You can trust me." It finally occurred to her that I was telling the truth about what I told her. "Lila."

The name sounded familiar, and now that I heard her name and looked closely at her face, she seemed even more familiar. I titled my head to the side as I tried to remember where I might have seen her before. "You wouldn't be the same Lila who was supposedly killed in a car wreck a few months back, would you?"

The girl who died in the wreck had dark brown hair though, but their faces and eyes were almost identical. She nodded her head. This was one of the people Wesley was talking about. The ones who gave up everything they had so they could protect themselves and the ones they cared most about.

Seeing this girl only made me not want to go into hiding even more. I stood up and said, "You can stay in here for the night. I would offer you a room in the house, but I doubt my Grandfather would let you stay. I'll bring you some blankets and food."

She stopped me when she asked, "You still have your family?" I nodded my head. Her eyes were sad. "Your lucky." I stared at her for a moment, then walked back to the dojo.

* * *

><p><em>chapter title based off the song She Wolf by Shakira.<em> i just listened to that song and i couldnt help but add it. you'll see a lot of wolf based song titles from anything from MCR to Falling In Reverse. ^^ btw. i promise that there won't be any romance between Lila and Shun. (just putting that out there right now for any of you wondering if there will be) omg i had the nicest nap ever. -sighs in bliss- but my shoulders are killing me from my bari sax. well, read, review, and other things. ~Copperpelt~


	14. The Things That Are To Come

_Shun_

When I walked back in the dojo, I found that my grandfather had fallen asleep in his room. I rolled my eyes. _Yeah, fair that you get to sleep and I have to get woken up to help you with chores._ I ignored my thoughts and went back to the task at hand. In the hall closet, I pulled out a couple of blankets and pillows and placed the on the back of the couch.

Then I moved into the kitchen and gathered up some bottles of water and other things and put them in a plastic grocery store bag. I went back for the blankets and walked back outside with all of the items. My feet trudged through the snow, leaving footprints behind me.

I got back to the storage building and saw that Lila was still inside. Her wary eyes told me she still wasn't sure if she should trust. _What else do I have to do for her to understand I'm not her enemy?_ I placed the stuff I brought her on a box.

"There's some blankets and pillows, and there should be enough food and water in there to get you through the night." She thanked me, but didn't make a move towards the stuff. _She's not going to move until I leave._ I turned around and was about to walk out of the building, but was stopped by her. She asked me, "I don't think I caught your name."

I thought back our previous conversation, and all I had gotten out of it was her fake and then real name. "Shun." She nodded her head, and was attempting to leave the building again. Once more, I was stopped by her. This time she asked me, "Are you still a new wolf?"

I mentally sighed, seeing now that even though she wasn't too sure about me, she wanted somebody to consult with. "Yeah. Been one about a week or so." I shut the door to keep the cold air out of the building, and sat down next to her on the floor. My grandfather would be out for the rest of the night, so I didn't have to worry about him looking around for me. "How long have you been a wolf?"

I asked. I saw Lila shudder, and I handed her one of the blankets I brought with me. She took it and draped it over her legs. "About two months, and I'm just now getting a hang of all the shifting." It had taken her almost two months to get a hang of her shifts.

How long would it take me? Everything had taken me twice as long so far, and I didn't want to take four months to be able to shift on my own will and not at random. "Have you been to the pack yet?" asked Lila. I thought back to the other day when Rayden had led me there, and nodded my head. "Yeah. Well, I met what I guess was the Alpha, but not the entire pack." Her eyes widened. "You met Blair?"

I shrugged my shoulders and said, "I guess so. I started to shift back when I was brought to him, and was taken out of the pack so I could make my way back home." She leaned up and grabbed another blanket, and one of the pillows fell to the floor when she did.

"I can't believe that you were taken to see Blair. I've been with the pack a month, and I've only seen glimpses of Blair from his cave." I didn't have any clue that meeting the Alpha was such a big deal. I thought back to when I was in that cave.

In my opinion, I hadn't made a very good impression being that I was shifting back and couldn't understand what he and Wesley were talking about. I had kind of just stood there and whined in pain from what I could recall. "Since you met Blair, then I assume that you also met Wesley as well, right?"

I nodded my head and told her, "Wesley was one of the first that I met. He kind of explained everything to me while I was in a hospital, and I ran into him again earlier today." Lila nodded her head. "I didn't meet Wesley until I first came to the pack. That's when he told me about what was happening to me….I was really scared that day."

Her eyes lowered and seemed like they were trying to hold back a bad memory. I said, "Well, I was pretty freaked out too when Wesley showed up saying that I was turning into a wolf. I'm sure it's a natural reaction." Lila shook her head.

"No. That's not what scared me. I had already accepted the fact that I was turning into a wolf. It was what happened to somebody else that freaked me out." I blinked a few times and asked, "What happened?" I doubted that Lila was about to tell me about this when she barely knew me, but I could at least try.

"There was another new wolf that had found his way to the pack. He was shifting non-stop all day, and when he was about to turn into a wolf he died. Wesley later told me that could happen to anyone, and that only a certain number of new wolves make it through their first shifts. I was so worried that I would end up dying like that other guy."

I didn't have anything to say. Wesley hadn't told me about the possibility that I could die while shifting. I had shifted twice that I knew about, and both of them were extremely painful. The thought that every shift I went through could kill me, was enough to put a sense of anxiety in my mind.

I said, "Wesley didn't tell me anything about that." Lila looked at me with her gold eyes. "He might not have wanted to make you worry. He doesn't tell all of the new wolves for some reason." I could have lived a semi-happy life without knowing that I could die the next time I shifted.

I stood up from the floor and said, "It's getting late. I'm going back inside. If you need anything else, just tap on the third window down on this side of the house." Lila nodded her head, and didn't stop me from leaving this time. Snow had fallen again while I was in the storage building, and it had covered up my tracks from when I brought Lila that stuff.

I stomped the snow off of my shoes when I got inside, and closed the door behind me. I scanned around the room and saw that my grandfather was nowhere to be seen. _Good. He's still asleep._ Instead of going back to my room, I sat down on the couch in the living room.

For some reason, I went back to what Lila said about me still having my family. Was it really that big of a deal to still have those who are close to you? It must have been for those who gave it all up. I still didn't want to let go of the things that made me who I was. If I did, then I'd never be able to live with myself in peace again.

_Shun_

I had fallen asleep on the couch, but was woken up by howls. I started to drift back off, but another howl woke me and I remember who was outside in the storage building. _Lila._ I jumped off of the couch and hurried outside through the snow. My calf muscles were already burning from forcing my legs through the snow.

Finally, I got to the storage building and heard a scratching on the other side of the door. I pulled the door open, and a wolf shot out from inside of the building. Startled, I jumped back and out of the way. The wolf, that I knew was Lila, looked around and sniffed the air.

She then saw me and ran off into the woods. My brain then finally registered everything that was happening. Lila had shifted again, either from random or a somehow adrenaline induced one. Odds were pointing to the random from her still not having control of the wolf in her.

I stepped in the storage building and my eyes widened. Everything had either fallen down or had gotten knocked over. I blinked. During her shift she had definitely done some twisting and turning. I heard snow crunching behind me, and at first I thought it was Lila.

I turned around and saw my grandfather standing in front of the door, his eyes wide like mine had been. "Shun, what did you do?" I opened my mouth to tell him about Lila, but shut it back. "I-Uh.." My grandfather shook his head and sighed. "I woke up after hearing something going on out here and I find that you've wrecked the storage building." I snapped at him, "I didn't do any of this!"

He narrowed his eyes at me and asked, "Ok then. Who did?" Again, I was about to open my mouth, but stopped myself. I couldn't just tell him I found a girl in the storage building who was a wolf and had just shifted, damaging anything that was in her way.

"No answer? This needs to be cleaned up in the morning. I'm going back to bed." He mumbled something while he walked off back to the dojo. I turned back to the mess in the storage building, and groaned. _Coming back here was definitely a bad idea._

_Alice_

Sometime late at night, I woke up. I sat up in my bed and rubbed the sleep from my eyes. _What time is it?_ I looked around and found my phone. When I turned it on, I saw that it was three in the morning. _Why did I wake up this early?_ I was never one to wake up in the middle of the night unless there was a nightmare involved or somebody making loud noises.

I tried to lay back down and fall back asleep, but it was too late. Already, I was wide awake. I groaned in aggravation. My head and eyes were still heavy with sleep, but my body was saying that it was wide awake and ready to start the day. _I hate when this happens._

I sat back up in my bed and placed my feet on the carpeted floor. When I stood up, I wobbled for a moment then proceeded to stretch my body in hopes to wake up a little more. It didn't make much of a difference, because my mind was still wanting to go back to bed.

_I'll make me a warm glass of milk. Maybe that'll help._ Groggily, I walked down the hall, occasionally losing my balance. I must have looked like a drunk, because I felt like one. I found the kitchen and stood in front of the massive freezer. You could have parked several small cars in it, and I wondered how much food was really inside of it.

None of us had seen this fridge before. I grabbed the handle and pulled it open. A rush of cool air slammed into me, followed by a bright, florescent light. What I saw then, would have made Dan die a little bit inside. Shelves and shelves of food as far back as the fridge could go.

Dan would have never been hungry again. I searched the shelves and finally found a large jug of milk. It was obvious to me by now that Murucho did his shopping at one of those bulk industrial sized stores like Sam's Club. I hunted around the cabinets next and found a glass, then poured some milk into it.

I left the fridge open because of the bright light it provided. The one or two light bulbs that were in it basically lit up the entire kitchen. I then found a microwave that looked like something out of a sci-fi movie. I stared at it for a moment as I tried to figure out how to operate it.

_I see why Murucho has people do this for him._ After about ten minutes, I figured out how to work the machine and put my glass of milk inside. I shut the door and watched the milk spin in the microwave, and eventually it started to bubble as it got warmer.

The machine beeped, and I took the warm glass of milk out. I shut the fridge door when I walked out of the kitchen, and sat down on the couch in our usual sitting area that the Brawlers used. In the dark I sipped on my warm milk, then turned on the TV to try and quicken up my drowsiness. The TV was still on the news, but it wasn't just a repeated report. This was something happening now.

There was a group of people standing around in the park; all of them were gathered around something. The cameraman wedged himself between the people and got a shot of a dead wolf that had been shot. Its gold eyes were still open, and blood was soaked all around it in the snow.

Police then showed up and arrested the group and pushed them into the police cars. Murucho's uncle, one of the city officials, was standing outside in the park with a heavy jacket on.

He said in the microphone, "This is unacceptable. The hunt may not be something we truly approve of, but we're going to stick to the assigned date we have placed. If anyone decides to start their own hunt early, they will be arrested."

The reporter asked Murucho's uncle a few other things, but I could only stay fixed on the video of the dead wolf that was shot. In a few weeks, this would be all of them.

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><p>omg i didnt wake up till like 11:30. o.o that's seriously late for me. then again, i didnt get to sleep till like 2 or 3 in the morning. -shrugs-ah. it's going to be one of those weeks. i know that right now. -.- check out the poll and cover if you havent. read, review, and other things. ~Copperpelt~<p> 


	15. Trust Issues

_Shun_

My grandfather didn't give me anytime to sleep in the next day. It was almost six in the morning when he walked into my room and woke me up. "Get up. You're going to start on the storage building early." He walked out, and I groaned. I swore to myself if I ever ran into Lila again, that I'd tell her she owed me for cleaning up the mess she left after her shift.

I climbed out of my bed, and found one of my green jackets. When I got it on, along with my shoes, I walked out of the dojo and towards the storage building. It looked worse in the daylight than it did in the dark. Seeing this only made me not want to clean the mess up even more.

I sighed. _That old man will hunt me down until it's clean, though._ I stepped over a box that had fallen in the doorway, almost tripping and falling forward. I caught myself though, and felt a sense of relief that nobody had seen me almost hit my face on the floor.

I started stacking the boxes back up against the wall like they had been, and put up any of the ninja weapons we used for training back up as well. I was already halfway done with the room when I heard something crack under my foot. I groaned, thinking that I had broken something glass that had been boxed up. I lifted my foot up and saw a plastic syringe on the ground.

A crack was running down the side that gave you the measurements of how much of something was inside. Carefully, I bent over and picked the syringe up. It looked just like the ones that Wesley had given me that had a dose of cortisol in them. Whatever was inside, had been emptied out.

Had Lila tried to stop her shift? The empty syringe told me that it hadn't worked. _It had to have been one that she couldn't control._ I saw a small amount of liquid in the plastic tube. It didn't look like the cortisol in the needles Wesley gave me. This seemed a little more foggy from what I could see.

"Shun! You better be cleaning up that storage building!" my grandfather yelled to me from the dojo. I quickly wrapped the syringe in a piece of plastic that was on the floor, and carefully stuck it in the pocket of my jacket. "I was just taking a break!" Before he could yell at me again, I quickly resumed cleaning the room up.

It had taken me a while, but I eventually got the storage building reorganized back to the way it had been. Maybe even better. My grandfather walked into the building and looked around. He gave me an approving nod. "This is good enough." I rolled my eyes without him seeing.

"I'm going to walk down the street to get some air," I said. The old man raised one of his hairy eyebrows and said, "Be back before dark." He then left me in the storage room, and when I stepped outside I saw him walk back in the dojo. I looked up at the sky. All of the clouds from the snowstorms had vanished, leaving a light, clear blue sky in its place.

There were a few stray clouds, but that was all that was above me other than the sun. It had to be late afternoon, which meant I had spent all of my day cleaning that storage building up. I headed for the gate to the dojo, and then stepped onto the asphalt street.

I stayed close to the edge in case a car drove by. Last thing I wanted was to be run over by some lunatic who didn't need a license in the first place. _Like Dan._ I smiled and walked on down the street a little bit further. Even though the sun was out, it wasn't warm enough to melt the snow that had accumulated everywhere.

The sun might have melted some of the snow, but it would surely stay there for several days if no more fell. There weren't many houses down the street from the dojo for miles, so I could walk as far as I pleased without one of the neighbors yelling at me to get out from in front of their property.

A red cardinal then flew out in front of me across the street. I stopped walking because the bird had startled me from my thoughts. I then saw what had spooked the bird; a wolf. It stopped chasing the bird when it saw me, and stood in the middle of street; its green eyes locked on me.

This wasn't Wesley. Not with that gray fur and eyes. This had to be Rayden. I was expecting him to growl and bare his teeth at me like he did last time, but instead he just stood in the street looking at me. I looked behind me and beyond the gray wolf for any oncoming cars. Both ways of the street were clear and free from traffic. The wolf's fur then stood on edge, and its skin underneath started to twitch.

The animal then transformed from a wolf, into what it once was; a human. The human version of Rayden was so similar to his wolf form, that it was almost scary. Even Wesley didn't look this alike to his wolf-self. Rayden then turned his head to his left and looked into the woods.

"Follow me." He walked to the side of the road, and slid down the snow covered ditch that was in front of the woods. I stared at him. How much could I trust Rayden? He had been the one who bit me and ripped apart all the reality I knew in the world, and he was also the one who killed a three year old and had set a spark for the hunt that would end with the deaths of so many wolves.

"Are you coming, or not?" He was staring at me with his green eyes, and his mouth set in a fine line. I couldn't detect any kind of emotion behind his face. Down in the ditch, he looked much smaller and skinnier, but I knew that was only because I was higher than him.

From what I gathered by seeing Rayden as a human for the first time, his height was about the same as mine, but his build was a little bit smaller than mine. But just because he didn't have much muscle, didn't mean that he couldn't pack a punch if needed. Rayden asked me once again if I was going with him.

Cautiously, I slid down the hill and into the ditch with him. He then started off into the woods, and I followed him a good ten feet behind. Where was he going? And why did he want me to go with him? We kept going deeper and deeper into the forest, and the sun was setting fast.

In the West, I could already see the moon rising. It would be nothing more than a thin, silver line in the sky when night fell. I felt like we had walked right to the center of the woods, and when I looked around all I could see were the outline of trees.

The whole forest around me was vanish as night took hold of it. "Where are we going, Rayden?" I asked. I knew if I made it out of this forest in one piece, that when I got back to the dojo I'd have a hell of a speech waiting for me. Rayden glanced back at me and said, "Wait. We're almost there."

Even though he wasn't anymore than ten feet in front of me, the dark night was making it hard for me to keep sights on him. Reluctantly, I walked up closer behind him so I would get lost in the forest.

I looked beyond Rayden, and saw we were heading towards a small, abandoned looking house. Something about the place didn't settle right with me. Maybe it was just the fact that I was in the forest, at night, with the person who made me question the facts from fiction now. _I've been watching one too many crime shows._

Rayden stopped at the door and pulled a key out from under the old wooden stairs. He then forced the key into the lock, and opened up the door. He walked in, and I followed suit behind him. I heard a few flips of light switches, and then the little house lit up.

I shut my eyes until I felt that they had fully adjusted to the change in brightness. When I could see again, I looked around. The whole building was nothing but one big room, and one small bathroom in the corner. There were a couple of sleeping cots against the wall, a box of what looked like dry goods, and first aide kits were piled up next to the box of food. "What is this place?"

Rayden stood in the middle of the old wood floor and said, "This is one of the safe houses for the pack that we have. We use them when one of us shift out in the woods or get hurt." I looked around at the rest of the room. An old, ratty couch was in the far back, and spider webs hung around in the corners next to the ceiling. "And why show me this now?" Rayden walked over to a plastic folding picnic table and dusted it off.

"All the new wolves need to know where one of these safe houses are until they are able to hold a form. Wesley and I were going to show you when I brought you to the pack the other day, but you were shifting back so quickly we didn't have time.

It's very dangerous in these woods if you don't have somewhere to go. You'll freeze or starve to death before you find any help." I scanned the room again. How many wolves had this place helped save from the harsh elements? "Are there more than one of these places?"

Rayden nodded his head. "They're all over the forest. They used to be old deer camp cabins, but the business was shut down when the city was about to level this forest for that mall. Now they're just being used as shelters for new wolves and whoever might get hurt."

Rayden had stopped cleaning the dust off of the table, and I could see tiny dust particles floating in the air. The dust vanished when they drifted in front of Rayden's dark, smoky gray hair. My fingers started to get cold, and I stuck my hands in the pockets of my jacket. I then felt the plastic wrapped syringe.

I pulled it out and saw that the plastic that I had wrapped it up in was starting to come off. "Do you have somewhere I can throw this away? I meant to toss it earlier." Rayden held his hand out, and I dropped the syringe in his palm. He looked at it and asked, "What are you doing with an empty syringe of adrenaline?"

I raised an eyebrow. "Adrenaline? That's not cortisol?" Rayden shook his head and pointed to the cap. "The cover cap is blue, not orange. That's how we tell the difference between the two." I hadn't even noticed the color difference between the caps.

But if that was adrenaline, then that meant that Lila had triggered her shift. She hadn't tried to stop it or let it happen at random. Rayden threw the syringe away, then brought his hand up to his nose and smelled it.

"This is Lila's scent." I nodded my head and told him, "Yeah. I found her out in our storage building the other day. She ran off after shifting back into a wolf, and I found that syringe this morning. I thought it was cortisol, and that she might have tried to have stopped herself from shifting."

Rayden shook his head. "No. This is definitely a dose of adrenaline. All wolves that have control over their shifts carry them along with the cortisol. Just in case they do have to shift for some reason or another." That would explain why Wesley hadn't given me the blue capped syringes of adrenaline along with the orange capped syringes of cortisol.

Those two substances were two entirely different things, with two entirely different effects on people like me, Wesley, or Rayden. One could stop us from shifting, and one could cause us to. I looked at Rayden's face, and saw that he had a slightly grim expression; the first real emotion I had seen from him yet.

He asked, "Did you hear about Lila?" I raised an eyebrow. "You mean her story? If so, then yeah. She told me bits and pieces of it." Rayden shook his head. "No. Did you hear about what happened to her last night?" My feet were starting to ache from standing on the old wood floor, and I sat down on the table that Rayden had dusted off.

"No. What happened?" The last I had seen or heard of Lila was last night when she had shifted and ran off into the woods behind the dojo. "She was killed," said Rayden. I felt my eyes widen. "Killed? How? I saw her last night." At first I didn't believe this.

I thought that it was another fake cover-up, but I reminded myself that Lila had already done that via 'car wreck.' I was leaning forward, waiting with anxiousness for Rayden to tell me what happened to Lila. "She had found our pack again late last night, about eleven."

_That's around the time she ran off._ "Our pack was patrolling the edge of our territory when we heard gunshots. Of course, our initial response was to run, and we did. The shots kept firing behind us, and I heard Lila cry out. When I turned around, I saw she was laying on the ground and bleeding."

I couldn't find anything to say. I only wanted to hear the rest of what happened to Lila, and how she was killed. "I tried to help her up to her feet, but when I saw the people who shot her, I panicked and ran to catch up with the rest of the pack.

But by the looks of her injuries, she was going to die anyway. They shot her again, but they gave up hunting for us." My mind was playing the images of Lila's death in my mind, and I wished that they would stop. They only reminded me that her death could result in a lot more.

I said flatly, "That's how the hunt will be." Rayden nodded his head. "Wesley told us all about the hunt, but none of us really believed him until now. But they were poachers, and from what I've heard, there shouldn't be anymore killings until the day of the hunt. Unless the ones who hunt before the date want to get into some serious legal trouble."

I sighed, feeling somehow responsible for Lila's death. _What if I hadn't allowed her to leave the storage building?_ I shook that question from my mind. There was no way that I would have known that Lila would have been shot later that night. I looked out one of the dirty windows and saw how pitch black it was outside.

_My grandfather is going to kill me._ "I really need to get back to my grandfather's." Rayden looked at me and said, "Then go." I stared back at him. "You're not going to show me the way back so I don't get lost?" I slid off of the table, and when my feet touched the floor, the wooden boards groaned under my weight.

"That's up to you to get back. You're going to have to learn this forest eventually, but I suggest not learning it at night." I stared at him in disbelief. He led me to this old house, and now he wasn't going to show me that way back?

Did he know the kind of trouble I was already in for not being back when my grandfather asked me to return? Rayden walked towards the door and opened it up. Cold air rushed in. He said, "You can wait till the morning to navigate that forest, or you can wait till morning."

His form then started to change, and he was back to his gray furred wolf body. Rayden then ran off into the dark woods, leaving me in the abandoned house. _Just my day, isn't it?_ Knowing that there was no way I'd find my way through that forest, I shut the door and unfolded one of the cots and sat down on it. "Well, this royally sucks." I let out a sigh.

* * *

><p>bleh. i have homework. grrrr. -.- and i need to get started on it. read, review, and other things. ~Copperpelt~<p> 


	16. The Will To Survive

_Shun_

I didn't even bother to sleep. I had spent all of my time being wide awake and trying see if I could jog my memory back so I could find my way home. Every time I tried to remember a landmark, I came up blank. All of the forest just looked so much alike.

The only thing I could recall were trees, trees, trees, and more trees. I stood up from the sleeping cot that I had unfolded, and walked over to the dirt caked window. I took my hand and wiped some of the dust away so I could see outside. It had to be way past midnight by now.

An opening in the treetops showed me the thin line of the moon. There weren't any clouds in the sky from what I could tell. I coughed when I inhaled some of the dust I had kicked up. I couldn't bare to be in that stuffy and dusty house any longer. I slipped my jacket on and stepped outside.

It didn't take very long for the cold air to nip at me through my jacket, but I tolerated it. I walked around the woods, but didn't stray far from the house. It was so still and quiet around me, that I could hear my own breathing, heart, and even the blood coursing through my body.

There weren't any songs from birds, or even the howls of the wolf pack. I leaned against the trunk of a pine tree, and took in some of the silence to relax myself. It was short-lived though when something didn't set right with me. I pushed myself from the tree trunk and peered around the bark. Before I saw them, I heard the footsteps crunching through the snow.

My eyes quickly sought out the dark figures in front of me. Then, I made out the silhouettes of rifles in their hands. _Poachers._ I watched as they walked right past the tree I was behind. As long as I was quiet, they wouldn't know I was there.

But if I made a sound, then surely they'd come after me. I might not had been a wolf, but that didn't mean that they wouldn't shoot me. Hunting the wolves was now illegal until the date of the hunt.

If there was an eyewitness to the crime they were committing, then I'd be silenced however they felt would be the best way. They were already looking at jail time for poaching, and I was sure they didn't want more time added on for shooting a person as well. Even though by hunting the wolves they were shooting people. I felt a need to go after them though.

Did I want to get payback on them for Lila's death? They weren't the ones who killed her because that small hunting party had been arrested. One of the poachers swung the beam of a flashlight in my direction, and I ducked back behind the tree. "What is it?" one of them asked.

My heart was beginning to race from possibly getting caught. The one who had the flashlight said, "I thought I heard something over this way." I gulped and frantically looked around for a possible way for me to run. The path back to the safe house was too far, and I would be seen if I made a dash that way. Any other possible escape route was just the same.

I had literally walked into the only place in the forest that had the fewest trees around. Plus, the light of the moon was right above me and illuminated the snow and trees. I heard the crunching of their boots in the snow getting closer, and my panic worsened.

My body and head started to ache, and I leaned my back against the tree and slid down to the base. I was now sitting in the snow, and the poachers were getting closer from what I could tell. I brought my knees up closer to my body and groaned as a wave of pain went through me.

_No. I can't shift._ I felt in my pockets, hoping that I had stuck one of the syringes of cortisol in them. Nothing. My hands were shaking from the adrenaline, and I had nothing to counteract it and stop myself from shifted. Those poachers would either find me right as I shifted, or afterwards.

Either way, I wouldn't on very good terms with them. I could already picture them reacting to seeing a person change into a wolf. They would think they were crazy like I had thought when I saw Wesley shift. I leaned my head back and gritted my teeth as the pain got worse.

There wouldn't be any chances of me calming myself down. I could tell right then that I was too far into the shift to stop it on my own. I saw the flashlight get closer out of the corner of my eye.

_Shun_

My eyes flew open, and I darted off into the woods in front of me. A voice behind me yelled, "There's a wolf! Get it!" I heard clicking behind me, and then loud shots.

The sound hurt my sensitive ears, and only made me run faster to get away from my attackers. I ran past the trees and further into the woods. All my mind was telling me was to get away. Far away. I couldn't recall what was chasing after me, but I knew if I stayed that it wouldn't end well for me.

Another shot exploded into the air, and I felt a sting in my shoulder. I lost my balance and tumbled in the snow. I shook myself clean and looked at my shoulder. A thin line of blood was trickling and matting up my black fur. There were shouts and yelling coming from the direction I had run from. "I think I shot him!"

I saw a group of six people step out from the trees, all of them with their eyes locked on me. "It's still alive!" They lifted up the weapons in their hands, and more shots blasted. One of them hit a place right next to where I was standing, and that was enough to send me running off again.

I was ignoring the stinging and burning pain in my shoulder. As long as I could run, then the injury wasn't bad enough for me to stop. I then ran out of the forest, and was in a large, wide open place. It smelled of people. In the distance were buildings and lights. _The park._

I knew I had been at this place before, but my mind was racing so fast that I couldn't remember when or how. The sounds of the people chasing me brought me back to what was happening, and I kept running. I was in the open, and an easy target for them now.

My paws were no longer running on the cold snow, but asphalt. I turned to see if I was still being followed, and I was. I whined and kept running. I could already feel my body starting to give out from fatigue. I stayed on the asphalt road, and heard my claws clicking under me as I ran faster.

A bridge over a shallow river came into my view, and I ran off to the side and hid under the concrete structure. It took all of the leg muscle I had to keep from slipping on the ice covered ground and into the river below. "Where'd he go?" asked of the people above me.

I stayed as quiet as a mouse, making sure not to make the slightest noise. Another one of the hunters said, "I don't know where he went, but we need to get out of here before somebody sees us with these guns." There was a chorus of agreement, and I heard them run off further down the road.

I stayed under the bridge for a little while longer, and my body finally gave out from the running. My feet slipped out from under me and I slid down the icy slope and into the river below. The freezing water made my body jolt out and I grabbed onto the river bank and pulled my soaked body out.

My fur was heavy with water, and I shook the water off. Already, I was beginning to shiver as the cold set in. It was so bad, that I could barely walk. Between the freezing air and my worn out body, I could hardly stand. I gave up, and laid down in the snow, still hidden under the bridge.

I felt my mind and everything else slowing down as I started to lose myself to the cold. My ears perked up when I heard the howls of the wolves in the pack. I raised my head and found the energy to call back to them. I got out a sound that was just loud enough to echo under the bridge, and finally succumbed to my weakness.

_Alice_

None of us had talked with Shun since we left the dojo. The others hadn't been concerned about him like I was when we left, but now they were starting to show signs of worry. Murucho kept trying to keep all of us in good spirits by saying, "I'm sure if something happened to him, his grandfather would call us and let us know."

We just nodded our heads; none of us really wanted to let Murucho know that he wasn't succeeding in making us feel any better. I yawned, still feeling a little groggy from another restless night. All while I slept, I kept having these weird dreams about Shun and the wolves.

I kept seeing him in the forest as himself, but surrounded by the wolves. His eyes also looked different; more animal-like. Then I watched him turn into one of the wolves; the black one that was behind the dojo to be exact. That was the first time I woke myself up from the dream that night.

It had felt so real to me, but I knew it couldn't be. People didn't turn into animals. I had heard of people who thought they were animals, but it was completely impossible for a person achieve the ability to turn into something like a wolf. That would involve some serious pain as the body would change from one species and into another.

_They're just dreams. Really weird dreams._ I kept telling myself that, and that they had no meaning behind them whatsoever. I started to believe myself, and soon the dreams had gone to the back of my mind. "You know, maybe we should call Shun. To see how he's doing," suggested Julie.

I couldn't have agreed with her more. I had been wanting to call Shun and see how he was doing to moment we got back to Murucho's from the dojo. Murucho said back to Julie, "We can if you want. He's probably fine though." _I don't care. Something just doesn't feel right._

Murucho asked for a phone to call Shun since he's didn't get charged last night. I handed him mine because I was closer to him and already had it out. He thanked me and punched in Shun's number. He held the phone to his ear a few minutes, then took it away and looked at it.

"Hmm. No answer. Let me try his house number." Murucho punched in another number and brought the phone back up to his ear. This time he got an answer. He said to both us and the person on the other end of the phone, "Let me step outside so I can find a signal."

He left the room with my phone, and we all waited for him to return. We passed the time by looking at pictures on Julie's phone that she took when she went to the Bahamas for the summer. I wasn't really paying much attention to the photos though. I just wanted Murucho to hurry back and tell us whether Shun was alright or not.

My wish had been granted when the short blonde came walking back in the room. I asked, "Well? What did you find out?" Murucho looked and me and then the others. He said, "That was his grandfather I talked with on the phone. Speaking of which, here's your phone back, Alice."

I took it from his hand and thanked him for giving it back to me. "And?" asked Dan in a somewhat annoyed tone. Murucho told us, "He said that Shun went for a walk yesterday and didn't come back. He checked all down the street and asked all of their neighbors if any of them had seen Shun. All of them said no."

Dan threw his hands up in the air and said, "What is with Shun and his disappearing act!" Runo hit him in his chest and told him to quit making a scene. Murucho pushed up his glasses and thanked her for quieting him down.

He then said, "His grandfather called the cops this morning to report that Shun was missing. He said that he normally wouldn't have called the police, but this has been the longest Shun's ever run off according to him."

I stood up from the couch and said, "I'm going out for some air." I didn't want to hear anymore about Shun's most recent vanishing. Somehow though, it felt like he meant to run off this time. I couldn't place how I knew this, but I did.

This wasn't like when Shun crashed his car off the side of the road and was nowhere to be seen, or when he ran off from the hospital. This had a different tone to it. One that made me feel like he had knew he was running off this time.

I stopped in the middle of a hallway. Even if I did firmly believe that Shun meant to run off, I couldn't help but be concerned about him. _What's going on with you, Shun?_

* * *

><p>no update tomorrow, but there should be one friday. sorry for not uploading yesterday. i got home pretty late and just got lazy. : plus, my little brain needed a rest. oh how i love early release days. ^^ well, read, review, and other things. ~Copperpelt~


	17. Prisoner Of The Forest

_Shun_

Slowly, my eyes opened up as I started to become conscious again. The last thing I recalled, was that I had shifted in the forest when poachers were hunting for the wolves. I had ran from them and finally gave out under a bridge. So, I was expecting to see either that bridge or the sky. Instead, I was looking up at a ceiling. Then, I noticed that I was panting heavily and pouring with sweat.

A voice to my left said, "Hey, Rayden, he's awake." I turned my head in the direction of the voice and saw Wesley and Rayden sitting down at the plastic table. I looked from them, and to the rest of my surroundings. I was back in the safe house that Rayden had left me in before I ran from the poachers. Had I been dreaming the whole thing? "What happened? How'd I get back here?"

Wesley propped himself up on the table with his elbow. "We heard you call out last night and came to look for you." Rayden folded his arms over his chest and added, "That's when we found you by the river under the bridge. Wesley and I shifted and carried you back here."

Wesley nodded his head to verify that what Rayden was telling me. He then said, "You were still a wolf when we brought you back here. In fact, you just recently shifted back. I didn't expect you to stay in that form for so long, but you did."

Rayden grabbed a bottle of water from the box of food and said, "And that shift you just went through seemed pretty painful from my standpoint." He twisted off the cap from the bottle and took a drink. I got my hands under me, and tried to push myself up.

A stabbing pain stung my shoulder, and caused me to fall back into the cot under me. "Take it easy. That bullet wound might not have been serious, but it's still going to be painful for a little while," said Wesley. I looked at my right shoulder, and saw a tiny, white bandage taped on me.

In the center was a little spot of red where blood was starting to seep through. Staring at the wound sent image to my brain of the poachers shooting at me. I flinched as my memory replayed the sound of the gunshots slicing through the air.

Wesley said, "You're lucky you got away from them with only that little hole in your shoulder." For once, I got a good look at Wesley and Rayden side-by-side. Wesley had told me that the two of them were cousins, but they could have been brothers if it weren't for their opposite hair colors and eyes. "Did those poachers get caught?" I asked. Wesley shook his head.

"Sadly, I don't think so. I wish they had been. It's bad enough that they're going to be hunting us in a few weeks, but they can't even wait till then. It's times like this that I'm happy that I'm not just a human anymore." I could see the anger in Wesley's eyes, but also the pain.

There could have been a possibility that Wesley truly did hate the human nature, but he also missed it. It was, after all, still half of him. Whether he liked it or not. I started to take back my previous comment about Rayden and Wesley looking alike.

True, they both had similar facial features and build, but there were also some major differences. Rayden looked much more fierce and feral, almost like he did belong in the wild. Wesley just looked like anyone that you'd pass by on the sidewalk. Nothing really stood out about him.

He just, blended in. Wesley broke the silence that had built up. "I apologize about Rayden's actions. He should have taken you back to your home." Rayden let out a grunt and said, "He's going to have to learn the forest eventually, Wesley. We can't just hope that he'll stumble along and find one of these houses."

Wesley turned to his cousin and looked at him through narrowed eyes. "I know he has to learn this area, but dumping him out here in the middle of it at night isn't going to help him. Seriously, Rayden, look what it's already gotten him." He was point towards my shoulder, even though I was laying down on my back.

I felt overcome by an awkwardness as the two of them argued. It felt like one of those moments when you'd be at a friend's house and their parents are fighting, and all you do is sit there and pet the dog. _Where's a dog when I need one?_ Wesley sighed.

"Whatever, Rayden. We'll finish this discussion later, but right now we should probably be getting Shun back to his home before his family gets too worried." I thought about how my grandfather must have already been fuming, and I wondered if I should expect holes punched in the wall when I did get home.

What if the others had called or dropped by though? Surely the old man would have informed them that I was missing. If he had, then they were all probably in a panic and calling the police. This would be all the time; having them worry every time I shifted and was taken away by the forest again and again.

How long could I keep up the act, and keep my secret hidden from them? I thought about all of the people who fell into this like I had, and how they gave up their lives. Was this why they did it? To put an end to their family's worry? To make it easier on themselves? I sunk deeper into the cot that I had been laid on when I was brought back to the safe house.

I closed my eyes, and put myself into a more peaceful and simpler place. An escape from a reality that was just too much to handle for my mind. But even my mental safe haven wasn't locked off from this new life. Images of future shifts and the worried faces of my friends and family still plagued my mind.

I opened my eyes back up, feeling that room with Wesley and Rayden was safer than my own subconscious. Wesley asked me, "Are you ready to go home?" I sat up and stared off into nothing. Then, I said, "Not really." I surprised even myself.

I had been the one who preached and preached to Wesley that I wasn't like the others. That I wouldn't give up my life just because of a speed bump in my life. But this was so much more than a little speed bump. This was an entire brick wall that I had crashed into, and there wasn't much hope of going around or over it to get to the other side. Wesley raised an eyebrow.

"You don't want to go home? I'm sure your friends and family are starting to worry about where you are." _I'm no different than the others. There's nothing that makes me any different from them._ I could see that Wesley knew what I was saying, but he still offered me a question anyway.

Out of common courtesy, I suppose. "They're going to have to worry for a while then," I said flatly. Wesley nodded his head. He had told me that there were other new wolves who had said the same things as I had about never giving up their family. So far, all of them eventually gave in to the reality, and they quit living in the fantasy of keeping what they once held dear to them.

_It's for the best, _I kept telling myself. _It's not just for me, but for them._ Maybe it had taken me longer to give in than the others in the pack, but in the end I had still succumbed to the horrid disease that was rooting up my life slowly. Inch by painful inch.

It might have been better for me to permanently stay with the pack. If I did, then I wouldn't run the risk of shifting in public and exposing my secret side to the whole world. And I'd also be able to help fight off the hunt that was slowly coming up. Wesley asked me, "Do you want to be gone from their world?"

I knew what he was asking. He wanted to know if I wanted to be seen as dead in the eyes of all of the people in the city, and even the world. If I wanted to be looked up, the only information they would get would be my death certificate. I felt as though I didn't have it in me to fake my own death.

True, I didn't want to worry them with my disappearance, but I also didn't want out them through with my 'death' and my body that would never be located. The disappearance sounded better to me, but I also knew that after a while I'd be officially pronounced as dead in several weeks.

I shook my head and told Wesley, "No. I don't want to be dead. I just want to be missing for a while." He nodded his head and asked, "Are you sure this is what you want?" I lowered my eyes and looked in front of me. At what, I wasn't so sure about.

"Yeah." I thought about how painful it would be to cut myself off from my friends, and how painful it would be for them. I was now nothing more than another prisoner to this forest, and the secrets that it hid.

_Alice_

I was still walking around outside to escape the conversation taking place about Shun's most recent disappearance. I hadn't grabbed a thick jacket, and was paying for it by letting the cold air easily slice through what little layering I had on. I didn't know where I was walking to, but eventually I ended up in the park.

It always seemed like this was where I showed up at when my mind was troubled. I had been standing by my theory that Shun meant to run off this time, but now that feeling has changed. Now, it felt like he meant to, but he didn't really want to. _I don't know what I'm talking about anymore._

My mind felt so far down in the gutter, that there was no hope of fishing it out. I looked up and saw a couple of kids playing. They were starting to run towards the edge of the forest, and their mother quickly scooped them up and ran off back to the swings.

I saw the remnants of the police line tape that had been leftover from when that little kid was killed by the wolves. I'd hate to have been the mother who had to deal with that burden, and maybe if I was in her place I'd want the wolves to pay for what they had done.

I was sure that if they had taken something away from me that was close to me, I'd be pretty mad. But as far as I knew, nothing close to me had been taken from me by those wolves. So, I had no reason to want them to suffer. What did it accomplish?

It wasn't like killing them would bring that little kid back. _But it would stop it from happening again._ Yet, there were so many other ways they could stop it without killing them all off. I saw shadowy figures walking through the trees. Curious, I walked a few feet closer and squinted my eyes. I saw about six or seven wolves walking through the forest. For some reason, I thought that I might have seen the black wolf from behind the dojo, but he wasn't there.

I'd get called crazy, but somehow I felt as if I knew that wolf. I stuck my hands in my jacket pockets, and felt something plastic and square. I pulled out Runo's digital camera that I had borrowed a while back, and apparently also had forgotten to return it to her.

I looked up and saw that the wolves had stopped walking and were just standing in the woods. I turned on the camera and zoomed it in on the wolves as much as I could. Then, I took a snapshot of them. I looked at the picture, then took several more.

They were really good photos considering the distance that was between me and the wolves. I kept looking at the pictures, thinking that maybe somehow these simple little pictures could have the power to stop the hunt. I knew that was nothing more than a fantasy though.

The people who supported this hunt had their sights set on it, and weren't going to let up until they accomplished their goal. My phone buzzed in my pocket, and I saw that Runo had shot me a message. _We're going to Shun's grandfather's dojo to help look for him._

I punched the buttons with my cold fingers. _Ok. I'll be back there at Murucho's in a few minutes._ Runo quickly replied with an 'ok' and I stuck the phone and camera back in my pockets.

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><p>-screams and pulls hair out like a mad woman- FINALLY! DAMN YOU INTERNET! i had this chapter done since like 6:00 and i couldnt upload it because there was an 'internet timeout' and i could log in! -jumps up and down in anger- i was JUST able to log in now. i've been waiting for it to work since i got home. -takes deep breaths- i'm going to scream again. -leaves room then returns-...i hate my computer...oh so much. anyway. i found out today that i had to carry my sax home...my teacher thought i might of had a dead body in it. o.o and there was something else but i can't think of it. oh well. you can't blame me since I'm still running on only two hours of sleep. -.- -falls over- read, review, and other things. ~Copperpelt~<p> 


	18. Ghosts Of The Forest

_Alice_

Kato drove us all the way back to the dojo once more so we could help and look for Shun. I doubted that we'd find him anywhere around there, but his grandfather had called the police to look for him and we could be of some help to them. Since we knew Shun personally.

There were three police cars parked outside of the dojo, and about six walking around the grounds and talking to Shun's grandfather. The old man saw us and said, "Oh. There his friends are right now." We all greeted the officers when we walked up to them.

They greeted us back, but kept their focus on Shun's grandfather. Maybe they were going to get as much out of the old man as they could before moving along to us. While the officers were preoccupied, I walked around the outside of the dojo.

The snow made it difficult to walk through, but I managed. I stopped at the place where I saw the wolf the night we stayed at the dojo due to a heavy snowstorm. I looked beyond that place, and into the forest that was surrounding me. Could Shun have gone in there and gotten lost?

There was a chance, but his grandfather said Shun had gone for a walk down the street. That didn't mean anything since miles of that stretch of road had more of the forest around it. I pushed several branches back and walked around in the woods for a little while, making sure that I didn't go too far off from the dojo.

I didn't want to end up getting lost myself. It was bad enough we were looking for one person, we didn't need to look for two. I started up a snow covered hill, using dead or broken trees as markers for when I came back down.

When I topped the hill, I saw a flat, open stretch of area with a lake in the center. The water was frozen over, and snow was stuck to the surface. Sunlight made the ice and snow sparkle like thousands of camera flashes at a concert.

The trees that had gone dormant with the newly arrived winter, made the area look even more beautiful. This place could have been in any travel magazine as a place that was a must visit, but nobody knew about it since people never went into the woods, and they were too afraid to go there because of the wolves living in the area.

I then remembered that the wolves roamed this forest. I looked around the area, expecting to see them. They were probably in another part of the woods, and the odds of them being in the same location as me, were very low. I calmed down and walked closer to the frozen over lake.

I knelt down by the bank and brushed the snow away to reveal the mirror like ice. Below the ice, I could see water moving. It wouldn't be very safe to test how much weight this ice could hold. I stood up and brushed the snow off of my clothes, then started back towards the dojo.

I stepped through the trees just as the others were rounding the corner of the dojo. Runo said, "There you are, Alice." I walk towards them and said, "Yeah, here I am." I put on a smile to let them know I was ok.

She then said, "Some of the officers are going to start searching the forest, while the rest stay here and ask us if any of us might know where Shun ran off to." I nodded my head. Of course the police would start searching the forest.

It was the only thing near the dojo for miles that somebody could get lost in. Runo put her hand on my shoulder and said, "Don't worry, Alice. They're going to find him. Now, come on and let's get those questions out of the way." I smiled, feeling glad that I had a friend to reassure me on how everything would turn out.

But even with that reassuring, I still didn't fully believe what she was saying. A part of me still felt like things wouldn't be right or the same if we found Shun.

Why had things started to feel so different when all of this started? Maybe I'd know if we did find Shun. I followed Runo back around the dojo, and stepped inside so we could tell the police what we knew.

_Shun_

Wesley and Rayden left the safe house not long ago. They told me not to leave, but I did shortly after they left. The only reason I was left there again was because I couldn't will myself to shift quite yet, and I still needed to recover. But, defiance kicked in again and I stepped outside.

It was much colder than it had been, which could only mean that winter had finally arrived. I breathed out of my mouth, and my breath came out as little, smoky wisps. You'd think I would have learned from last night, and with the poachers, but I knew that there wouldn't be any dangers for me in the broad daylight.

I had on one of the jackets that was in the safe house, along with mine. Even with the two layers of clothing, I was still slightly chilled. I picked up a rock that I had dug up from the snow, and carved scratches into the bark of the trees so I'd be able to remember where I walked.

I went up a slight incline, still scratching marks into the trees, then came up to a large opening. It was a lake, and a big one at that. The water was frozen on the top, and completely untouched. Large rocks lined this side of the lake, and I could see the slick ice that had formed on them.

A familiar scent then slammed into me, and caused me to look at the area across from me on the other side of the lake.

There, I saw Alice walking along the bank and looking out over the frozen body of water. I ducked behind one of the large rocks to keep from being seen. I was supposed to be missing, and I wouldn't be missing anymore if I was found by Alice.

But already I was aching to talk with one of my friends that I had only just left behind earlier in the morning. Or maybe, I just ached to talk with just Alice. It didn't matter though. There was such a large distance between me and her from the lake and forest, and I still couldn't be seen by anyone who knew me. But why was she out in this forest? And by herself at that?

I peered around the corner of the rock, and saw that she was looking into the ice in front of her. She had no clue that I was there, and maybe that was how it needed to stay. She then stood up from, and looked back across the lake. I ducked back behind the rock again to keep from being seen. I stayed there for several minutes, then peered back out.

She was gone. Had I been imagining seeing her? No. I couldn't have been because my new senses picked up her scent all the way from across the lake. I walked out from behind the rock, and stared at the place that she was at. Why was she here? Did she not know the kind of risks she was taking by walking out in the woods?

I heard the howls of the pack behind me, and I quickly headed back for the safe house. I didn't want Wesley or Rayden to go in there and see that I was gone again. I slipped back into the house. Sadly, the heater in the place wasn't the best, being one of the little corner ones that you plugged into the wall. So, I kept both of my jackets on for extra warmth.

I sat down at the plastic table, and rested my head in the palm of my hand. All that stayed on my mind was seeing Alice on the other side of the lake. The only place I could think of that might have been on that side of the lake, was the dojo. Were the others there and looking for me?

_Then they're out of luck._ I sighed, then shivered. It wasn't a shiver from the cold air. An ache then started to crawl up my body, and I knew what was happening. I was starting to shift again. _It's not enough that I already shifted once in the past twenty-four hours?_

Then again, that was brought on by adrenaline, and I could have stopped it if I had one of the syringes of cortisol. I held my arms tightly as the pain started to become more intense. I swore that every shift got more and more unbearable.

The day when I'd finally be able to control them would be a blessing on its own. I wouldn't have to deal with this pain. Well, as far as I knew. I had seen Wesley and Rayden shift, and neither one of them seemed to be in pain when they did. I'd have to get out of the safe house soon, or I'd be trapped in there until I shifted back. And nobody knew when that could be.

Tears were starting to streak down my face from the pain, and I let out a small cry. Why did each shift get worse? I thought about what Lila had told me about the other new wolf who had died while shifting. A fear came over me with the possibility that I could fall victim to the shifts as well. I could already feel my body changing, and I hurried outside so I wouldn't be trapped in the safe house as a wolf.

I dropped down to my knees in the snow, then the rest of my body followed suit. My eyes were shut tight from the pain, but when I forced them open, I saw the pack standing in front of me. They were waiting for me to change and join them.

My eyes scanned the group in front of me, but I didn't see the Alpha, Blair. In fact, I never recalled seeing Blair outside of the pack on his own. Did he ever even leave the cave that I was taken to when I met him? My skin felt like it was about to explode, and I let out another cry.

_Alice_

It was almost dark when our questionings were finally done. There was still some orange up in the sky, but it wouldn't be for very long. The others had already piled up in Murucho's limo, and they were calling my name. Dan said, "Come on, Alice! It's freezing out here!"

I ran over to the limo and closed the door behind me. He was hugging himself to hold in his body heat. I smiled, but my mind was somewhere else. The questions the officers asked us weren't anything out of the ordinary. They just asked if he had displayed this kind of behavior before and this and that.

We answered the questions honestly. And in my opinion, it didn't really help them much. Kato slowed the limo down as we approached a small wreck that had happened. It just looked like the car had skidded off the road and into the ditch. Somebody had called the police an ambulance just in case.

An officer stopped us from going around until all the traffic on the other side of the road was clear. I leaned my head against the window and looked out into the forest. I could still see through the trees thanks to the setting sun. I then leaned up and pressed my face closer to the glass.

Walking through the trees, was the pack of wolves that I had seen in the park earlier in the day. The police didn't seem to notice them though, and they just kept on walking by. My eyes then fell on the black wolf. I felt my eyes widen.

I was sure that he had gone off and died after he left from the dojo. The sun and flashing lights from the vehicles gave me enough light to see its face and eyes. The pack stopped walking and stared at the wreck, but the black wolf didn't look at what was going on.

Instead, it kept its head low to the ground. I could see its amber eyes. They looked sad and lost. Its eyes then moved and fixed on my through the glass of the limo. I was hit by that rush of familiarity and recognition. The limo then started to move, and we drove around the wrecked cars.

I tried to see the wolves again, but we had driven further down the road and they were no long in my sights. I turned back around in my seat and stared at my lap. All I could see, were those two eyes.

They reminded me so much of Shun's. Was that why I found them familiar? The limo kept driving forward, and the forest then vanished as we entered back into the city.

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><p>i needed that sleep last night. -does happy sigh- ^^ just to prove how out i was, i had a dream where i slept so long that when i woke up, I was 21. o.o i then woke up for real and i was like, thank heavens I'm 15. XD lol. I'm probably not going to update my other story today since i have a jazz band concert in a few hours. read, review, and other things. ~Copperpelt~<p> 


	19. Always The Loner

_Shun_

I was sitting in the branch of a tree, and enjoying the time I had as a human. I couldn't ever predict my shifts, and I had learned that I best enjoy having my human body until I gained control over the wolf that was inside me. Sitting up in the tree, reminded me of when I was younger and would escape into the woods after a long day of training. It was such a simpler time back then.

The pack was below me, all of them in their human bodies, and talking away before it was time to patrol the territory. Unless I shifted at the last minute, I wouldn't join them. A cool breeze blew my hair from my face, and I looked up at the sun in the sky.

I had lost track of how many days or weeks I had been with the pack since I left behind me old life. Maybe a week and a half at the most? I wished I had kept up with the days, because then I'd be able to know when the day of the hunt was. I leaned back against the trunk of the tree, and sighed. "Everything all right up there, Shun?" I looked down to see one of the pack members, Orion, looking back.

When he had spoke, he had grabbed all of the pack's attention. Now, all of their eyes were looking up at me. I put on a smile and said, "Yeah. Just doing some thinking." They all exchanged looks at one another, and went back to their conversations. I didn't bother to join in with their talk just yet.

It was still too soon after leaving everything in my old life behind, and the wounds were still fresh. In an essence, I truly didn't feel like one of the pack like I thought I would have. _It probably just takes some time._ My eyes went back to our dwindling pack.

In only a few short days, we had lost two others to the poachers. As far as I knew, they were still at large. Then again, I didn't know much of what was going on outside of the forest anymore. Through the bare tree limbs in front of me, I could see the large lake that I had seen Alice at right after I went 'missing.' I hadn't seen her or any of the others since.

But I knew that they were looking for me. It wasn't like them to just abandon one of our group easily. Below my tree branch, Orion stood up and stretched. His dark brown hair moving with the light wind that was blowing. Wesley asked him, "And where do you think you're running off to?"

Orion said back to him, "Just going to stretch my legs. Chill for once, Wesley. It's not like those poachers are stupid enough to go and hunt in the daytime." Wesley looked at him for a moment, then sighed. "Alright. Go, but don't stay gone for too long. We can't afford to lose anymore from the pack."

Orion nodded his head, and shifted into his wolf form, then vanished into the trees. Orion had only been a wolf for four months or so, and had full control over his shifts. Because of that, he was considered a true member of the pack. Unlike me, who still felt like an outsider among them.

I had done everything from come to terms with the fact that I wasn't human anymore, and even leaving behind my friends and family. But I just couldn't find my place in the pack. Would I ever belong with them? At the rate I saw it, I highly doubted it.

Wesley stood up and said, "I say we go and do a perimeter check early today. Those poachers have gotten to where they're coming out earlier after dark, and I don't want to get caught by them again." The others below me nodded their heads and got up.

One by one, they shifted and ran off ahead of Wesley. Rayden shifted himself and ran off, leaving Wesley behind as the last to go. He looked up at me and said, "You know where to go unless you shift." I nodded my head. It was the same thing almost every night; they all go and run around in the woods, and if I was still a human, I always got stuck back in the safe house until otherwise.

I sighed and watched Wesley turn into his wolf form, and run off. During my short stay with the pack, I had learned that Wesley was the one under Blair. That made Wesley the Omega. His cousin, Rayden, was one rank under him. The top three wolves in the pack.

It explained why they were always showing new wolves the way, and telling the others what they needed to do. I stayed up in the tree branch until the sky was starting to turn black. When I finally decided that it was time for me to head back for the safe house, I slid off of the branch and landed in the snow below me.

Little snowflakes floated through the air from my landing, and a couple stuck to my torn clothes. I walked through the snow, and soon the safe house came back into my view. I was beginning to grow annoyed with being stuffed in that house until the day I finally quit fighting the shifts.

It wasn't like I hadn't been trying to get a grip on them. I had done everything from focusing my mind on the shift, to even trying to induce shifts in hopes that I would start to control them. I stopped with the induced ones though, because the pain only got worse and worse.

It was the same with my random ones, except I could control the other shifts with either adrenaline or cortisol. I couldn't figure out why my shifts were getting more and more painful each time.

I hadn't even bothered to mention it to Wesley or any of the others, but I was sure they noticed. How could they not notice it when I screamed in pain as my body turned into another species? I stopped a few yards from the safe house. I could still see around me, but just barely.

Above me, the half moon provided me with some light. I lifted up my right arm, and stared at it. The bite marks that were left from when Rayden bit me, were almost gone. There were still some faint, white scars on my skin. One little bite….Changed everything in the course of only a few minutes.

I dropped down to my knees in the snow, and stared blankly in front of me. My mind was screaming that it couldn't go on any longer. It wanted all of this to end, no matter what. How had the others in the pack remained sane for so long?

I hadn't even been with them two weeks, and I was already starting to lose it. No. I had lost it a long time ago, when I was bitten. Why had Rayden done it? All of this time I had been around him, I never got to asking him why he had turned me. My legs were starting to get cold from being in the snow, but I didn't get up.

I just stayed there in the snow and looked off into nothing. Maybe I was thinking that I'd wake up from this never-ending nightmare. Light footsteps from behind snapped me back to my senses. I turned around and saw Wesley and Rayden walking up from being me; both were still wolves.

The two of them shifted into their human bodies. Wesley asked me, "What are you doing sitting in the snow?" My eyes went from him, to Rayden. I asked coldly, "Why did you do this to me?" Rayden raised an eyebrow and laughed. "I'm not the one who made you sit out here in the snow and freeze his legs off. You did that on your own."

I felt anger boil up in me when he didn't answer the real question I had asked him. I snapped, "No. Why did you pull me into this? Why did you turn me into a wolf and give me this horrid curse!" I had stood up from the snow, and had my eyes narrowed at Rayden.

Both of my hands were clenched, and my jaw was tight. Wesley stepped between me and Wesley. "Now, don't start anything. Shun, Rayden didn't mean to bite you. He acts on impulse and instinct when he's a wolf." Rayden walked from behind his cousin and said, "He's right. I wasn't able to help it when I bit you, the same way I wasn't able to help it when I killed that kid. But trust me, do you think I wanted to bring another new wolf into this pack? I mean, it hasn't exactly been the biggest joy of teaching one of the slowest new wolves we've had in this pack."

My eyes widened, and I tried to lunge at Rayden. Wesley stopped me, and was holding me back from his cousin. I tried to free myself from Wesley's hold on me, but he was much stronger than I.

"Take it back!" I hissed. Rayden shrugged his shoulders and said, "Well, it's the truth." Even if Wesley was stronger than me, I was giving him a difficult time in holding me back. In the rush of the moment, I didn't even notice that my heart was racing, or that my body was starting to change.

Wesley pushed me back and snapped, "Calm down! Now! You're going to end up shifting unless you get a hold of yourself! That goes for both of you!" A growl rose up in my throat as my body went into a halfway stage of the shift. Rayden didn't seem to be shifting though.

That meant that he wasn't worked up over my attempt to attack him. In other words, he wasn't scared of me. He didn't see me as a threat or worth fighting. This only increased my anger as I took offense to his arrogance. "I don't care whether you meant to bite me or not. Either way, I'm going to make you suffer somehow for everything I've been put through."

My words were laced with poison. What I was telling him, wasn't a hollow threat. Rayden lifted his head and said, "Then make me suffer." His voice was toying, and told me that he wanted me to try and make a jump for him. Adrenaline finally took over, and I shifted in a spilt second as I lunged at Rayden.

He had shifted effortlessly, and I then felt something bite down around my neck. I was slammed down into the snow, and moved my eyes to see the wolf form of Rayden, who had a tight grip on my throat with his jaws. He bit down harder, and made my gasp for air.

He shot me a mental message, the way that the wolves communicated with one another that I had picked up on when I finally joined the pack. _"Try that again you little punk, I'll rip your throat out next time."_ He was forced to let go of my by Wesley, who had shifted himself during the fiasco.

When Rayden did let go of me, I took in deep breathes and coughed. I looked up at the gray wolf, who was growling at me. It wa a stupid move for me to try and fight one of the top three wolves in the pack. I was asking for an ass-kicking.

Rayden snapped his jaws and said, _"Get out of here, before I change my mind."_ I backed up and turned around, then darted off into the woods. When I felt like I was out of Rayden's sights, I stopped walking and shook the fight off of my body. I could feel where his spit had matted up the fur on the scruff of my neck when he attacked me.

I turned my head around and stared at the direction I had left from. It would be horrible to face the pack in the morning, because I knew that Rayden would tell everyone about what had happened. Fights among the wolves in the pack, never did stay behind closed doors.

Especially fights between a wolf who was high in the order, and one who was still low in the order. I kept on walking through the forest. I had started to learn the forest, but I still wasn't sure about my sense of direction in the place. At that moment, I was still worked up over the scuffle I had gotten into, and didn't care which way I was going.

I came to a halt, and growled. _Why should I stay in a place that I'm treated like crap in?_ I turned around and looked off through the trees, picturing the pack sitting around and going on with their lives without any of the drama I had been feeling.

My walk turned into a dead run, and I was no longer in the forest. Instead, I had run off into the city. I knew that if I was seen walking the streets, all hell would break loose. I didn't care though. I stopped at a large building, and read the sign that was stuck on the wall. _Marakura._

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><p>well, i dont feel like saying much other than i feel like I'm dying. -.- so, read, review, and other things. ~Copperpelt~<p> 


	20. Dear Agony

_Alice_

Another end to another day, and still no idea of where Shun had vanished off to. He had been missing for a little over a week, and had left us no clues to where he had gone. No notes or anything. He hadn't even taken anything with him when he disappeared. That alone raised a flag for me. If he was going to run away, wouldn't he at least take some extra clothes or food?

I sighed. The others had gone to bed not long ago, and I stayed in the sitting room. The only light I had, was from the lamp at the end of the couch. It seemed like I had been spending a lot of time by myself lately. Most of that time was spent thinking, but I still felt like I was alienating myself away from the group.

I stood up from the couch. I wasn't ready to go to bed, but I didn't want to sit any longer. I needed something to keep my mind preoccupied. I walked over to a window, and looked out over the city. The tops of buildings were covered in snow, and all of the trees had officially lost their leaves.

Winter used to be such a beautiful time to me, but it felt like I had lost that feeling with all of the stuff that was going on. I fogged up the window with my breath, and drew random shapes, then watched them disappear and leave fingerprint smudges on the glass.

The glass was cold from the air outside of it. I stared at my reflection in the glass, and my image turned into the image of the black wolf I had seen behind the dojo and in the woods. I shook my head, and was faced back with my own reflection again.

Why was that wolf haunting my mind? It was popping up in my thoughts more than anything else that had ever troubled me. It was always the same thing; I'd close my eyes and see the amber orbs of that black wolf.

They always were pleaded to speak and for help. But why? Why was I drawn to this animal? It was just a wolf though, right? Something caught my eye, and I looked down to the streets from the window. Walking along the sidewalk, was the black wolf that had been on my mind not five minutes ago. What was it doing all the way in the city?

The animal stopped in front of the building, and stared at it as if it were trying to make sense of what it was. I knew though, that if that wolf was seen in front of the wrong person's house, that they wouldn't hesitate to harm it. And they'd have the right to hurt that wolf too; the poaching laws didn't apply to people if the wolves came into the city.

The animals were fair game if that happened. I didn't want to see this wolf get shot. If it did, then there would be no telling how it would haunt my thoughts afterwards. The wolf then trotted off into the alley that was next to the mansion. I hurried up to my room, and snatched up my jacket.

Then, I ran swiftly downstairs and out into the cold winter air. I looked around, my breath coming out in little smoky wisps. I ran to my left and down the alley that I had seen the wolf go down. Instead of seeing the wolf, I saw Shun leaned against the brick of the wall. He looked up at me, panting as if he had been running.

His hair had fallen all around his face from being neglected for no telling how long. It was like looking at a ghost. He hadn't been missing that long, but it felt like years since I had seen him. I scanned over him, and saw how torn his clothes were. He didn't say anything to me.

He only stared at me with surprise in his face and eyes. Was he coming back to us after missing for a week? I saw his leg wobble, and he fell to his knees. "Shun!" Quickly, I ran over and caught him before he could fall the rest of the way to the ground. He was out cold.

I didn't want to leave him in the alley, but there was no way that I'd be able to carry, or drag, him inside. I leaned him against the brick wall and ran back in the mansion to get help.

_Shun_

It had been a quick shift. The moment I had felt my body turning back to human, I ran into the alley so nobody would see me. It had taken a lot of out of me though, and I was left exhausted from being pulled out from one body and put into another.

Plus, all of the running and fight with Rayden didn't help me much either. I heard footsteps around the corner, and for a moment I thought somebody had seen me shift. Before I could act, Alice stepped into the alley and saw me.

Her eyes were wide with shock, and I knew mine were as well. The fact that I was right next to Murucho's place had slipped my mind as quickly as I had shifted. Had she seen me? I was pretty sure that if she had, she'd be in all kinds of hysteria. A sense of relief washed over me though.

If I had the choice of who I'd be found by, I'd definitely have Alice be the one. I must have looked a sight for sore eyes with my messed up hair and torn clothes. I felt my legs give out from under me, and I hit the ground. Before everything went dark on me, I heard Alice yell my name.

My eyes re-opened, and I was laying on a couch. All around me were Dan, Runo, Julie, Murucho, and Alice. Even Kato was in the back of the room in case he was needed. I sat up from the couch and looked at everyone. Dan was the first to speak. "Shun…..Where the heck have you been?"

There wasn't anyway that I was about to tell them the truth. But what was I to tell them? It'd be difficult to play this off as another event that I didn't remember, because I had noticed that Alice seemed to have caught my last lie. Telling them that I was kidnapped wouldn't work one bit.

I could tell them that I got lost in the forest, but even they knew that it wouldn't have taken me this long to find my way out. I was trapped in the corner, and had no way out of the spot I was put in. So, i decided to play it off as traumatic experience until I could think up something to tell them.

"I….I don't really want to talk about it." Dan looked at me for a moment, and looked like he was about to say something before Murucho broke in. "It's ok, Shun. You can tell us when you feel like it. None of us are forcing you to talk, right, Dan?"

Dan stared down at the short blonde and said, "Yeah. You take your time." I could still see that Dan wanted to know where I had been. In fact, all of the others seemed to want to know as well. Julie then squinted her eyes, then lifted my chin up. "What did you do to your neck?"

The others were looking as well. I hadn't thought that Rayden had bit down that hard on my neck when we fought, but he apparently had. I brushed away Julie's hand and put my own hand on my neck where the bite marks were at to cover them. Now, how was I to explain this to them?

"I don't know where that happened at." I tried to put on the best poker face I had, and hoped that it was enough to keep my lie hidden. They remained silent. I looked at all of them and said, "Do you guys mind if I go and get cleaned up some?"

Just because I was supposed to be hiding from them, didn't mean that I wasn't about to pass up a chance for a warm shower and clean clothes. Murucho said, "Of course." I nodded and walked down the hall to one of the many bathrooms that were in Murucho's massive mansion.

I picked one that was near my usual room, and turned the water on as hot as I could get it without scalding myself. I started to think about how the others had reacted when I woke up. They were revealed, but at the same time shocked that I had suddenly shown up again.

And the bite marks on my neck weren't helping my case either. Even though they were happy to have me back, I knew I couldn't stay. I was still unstable, and could shift at any given moment. And I didn't want to take any chances with the others seeing me change. I'd have to leave as soon as I could. No matter how hard it would be.

_Alice_

It was weird having Shun back. That was plain to see by everyone's expressions when I ran back inside and told them Shun was outside. They didn't hesitate to run back out with me and see for themselves. Dan and Kato had been the ones to carry him back in since none of the rest of us could carry his weight. As Julie had said, "Leave the heavy lifting to the guys."

We all just kind of stood there and stood around the couch in disbelief that Shun was actually back. He looked a lot worse when we brought him in than when I found him out in the alley. He was bruised up, and looked thin, as if he hadn't eaten in a while.

One thing that caught my eye though, were the red scratches on his neck. They looked more like bites, but I couldn't tell from what. So, I stuck with the theory of scratches. Where had he been? What had he gone through? It didn't take him long to wake back up, and he was already sitting up again. I wanted to make him lay back down, but I knew that would be pointless.

This was Shun that we were dealing with, after all. We all talked for a moment or two, and he left down the hall to clean up. When he was out of sight, Dan said, "I can't think of anywhere that he's been except the woods." Murucho sat down and said, "We shouldn't be going and making assumptions just yet, Dan. We should wait until Shun wants to tell us what happen."

Julie leaned against the back of the couch and said, "Yeah. It's obvious that whatever he went through wasn't a walk through a field of flowers, Dan." Dan rolled his eyes and said, "I guess you both have valid points….But still. He's going to have to tell us eventually."

Murucho pushed his glasses up and said, "And he will, Dan. Just when he wants to. I say we don't push him to tell us. That could only make things worse. I mean, none of us know what he went through, and bugging him about it could make matters worse."

I agreed with Murucho, and it seemed like the others did as well. Shun then came walking down the hall. All of the dirt was washed away from him, and he looked a million times better than when we found him. The marks on his neck were still visible though.

He was wearing one of his spare outfits that he kept at Murucho's. I never knew why he kept extra clothes here, but I saw then one good reason for it. Murucho said to him, "How about I have Kato fix you up something to eat, and then you can stay in one of the rooms and get some rest? Because I'm sure your tired and hungry."

Shun smiled and said back, "That sounds good to me." Kato was still in the room. He bowed and said, "I'll get started right away, Master Murucho." He then bowed again and walked out of the room to fix something for Shun.

_Shun_

I quickly finished my food. Between the hot shower I had gotten, and my full stomach, I felt great. I had no idea how hungry I had really been. And having my food cooked again was a lot better than having it 'fresh.' I let out a peaceful sigh. It had been a while since I had felt this relaxed.

The others were still hanging around me, and I felt as if I were being watched by vultures. They probably felt that if they took their eyes away from me, that I'd run off again.

_It's not like I wanted to leave. I had to._ "I think I'm going to head on to bed," I said to the others. They all looked at one another, and told me good-night. Murucho had already called the police to call off the search for me, which was a relief for me to know that I wasn't being looked for anymore. But, the search would be called back on in the next few days when I left again.

I hated knowing that I'd be putting them through all of this again, but what other choice did I have? Let them see me turn into an animal? _No thanks._ I walked down to my usual room, and locked the door behind me. In case I did shift, I didn't want to be walked in on.

Not easily at least. I walked towards my bed, and felt like I had just been hit in the head. I dropped down to my hands and knees and cried out. Through the door, I heard the sound of feet running down the hall. Then, there was a knocking on my door. Murucho's voice then followed.

"Shun? Is everything ok?" I gritted my teeth and forced myself to speak. "I'm fine." My voice was more of a growl. Murucho asked, "Are you sure?" I could hear him trying to open the door, but the lock was keeping him and whoever else was with him from entering. "Yeah, I'm fine."

My voice was so hoarse sounding, that I could hardly hear it myself. I dug my fingernails into the carpet under me, and suppressed another scream. Oh, wonderful this timing was. I didn't know why my shifts had become more frequent. They were almost on a daily basis now, but I still couldn't pinpoint when they would happen.

This one felt almost like my last shift, but it was still a painful experience. I gritted my teeth again. _No. I'm not shifting this time. I refuse._ I buried my face into the carpet, and did my best to keep the wolf that was in me from breaking free.

I laid on the floor for several minutes, and every minute I was fighting the pain by halting my shift. And just as quickly as the pain hit, it went away. I fell over on my side, and let out heaving gasps. My hands were shaking, and tears were starting to dry on my face.

A threat of being sick was lingering in my stomach, but I kept my food down. _I did it. I stopped my shift._ A weak smile came across my face, and I closed my eyes and fell asleep on the floor.

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><p><em>chapter title based off the song Dear Agony by Breaking Benjamin. <em>i am about to freeze to death. it's supposed to be warmer in your house than it is outside during the winter...NOT COLDER! darn my dad. -.- grrr. well, read, review, and other things. ~Copperpelt~


	21. Raised By Wolves

_Alice_

The moment all of us heard Shun yell, we made a dash for his room. Had he been hurt, and none of us notice? Dan had tried the doorknob, but it was locked tight. The brunette called out to his friend, and asked if everything was alright. Shun answered back, and said that he was fine.

Through the door, I could tell his voice was rough and laced with pain. Dan asked again, and Shun replied with the same answer. Unable to go in the room and check, we all reluctantly left from Shun's room. I was the last to walk off. Something was going on with Shun at the moment, and I wanted to know what it was.

There could have been something that I could have done to help, and not being able to try and offer my help made me fell useless. Finally, I walked away from the room. I knew that the longer that I stood there, the more likely I'd be to not leave.

I went down the hall, and back to the sitting room that all of us were gathered in before Shun cried out. The only one who was sitting, was Julie. The reason for that was because of the heels she was wearing. I didn't understand why she went all day with them on, even though they hurt her feet.

She was one reason that I was happy to wear my white boots that didn't cause me any pain or grief. Dan growled and had his arms crossed over his chest. Murucho looked at him with a confused expression. "What's up, Dan?" All of us were looking at Dan now, and waiting for him to tell us what was his issue.

"I don't see why Shun won't tell us what's been going on with him," he said in an aggravated tone. This wasn't easy for any of us, but it was harder for Dan. Shun was his best friend, and they had told each other almost everything since they were little kids.

This was probably the first time that Shun had kept something from Dan for this long. Murucho sighed and said, "Dan, don't start this up again. I told you, it's best if we let Shun have a little space and let him tell us when he wants to." That was easier said than done in Dan's case. Dan had no patience, and it was even worse when it concerned his friends or family.

Family. I turned to Murucho and asked, "Have you called Shun's grandfather and told him that we found Shun?" Murucho looked at me and said, "The police said they'd take care of that, but I guess it wouldn't hurt to call him personally and make sure the message got to him."

I nodded my head. Shun's grandfather needed to know about Shun's re-appearance. That way, all the worry that the old man had, would be gone finally. "But it's late, Murucho. I'm sure that Shun's grandfather is asleep," said Runo. I hadn't even considered the time.

I looked around the room and found a clock. It was way past midnight, and all of us were wide awake. Dan rolled his eyes and said, "Come on, Runo. That old guy hasn't slept since Shun vanished from the face of the Earth." Murucho ran a hand through his blonde hair and said, "Ok. How about I just call him first thing in the morning? Doing that seems like it would save everyone a lot of trouble."

We all looked at each other and gave a simultaneous, "Sure." There was a low rumbling outside, and I walked over to the window to see what it was. In the dark sky, was a half-full moon that was starting to get covered up by black storm clouds.

The others joined behind me. Murucho said, "That doesn't look like another snowstorm coming in." I shook my head and looked off in the distance. Flashes of light lit up the night sky, and they were all followed by ominous rumblings. By the way the clouds were moving, there had to be some strong winds blowing outside as well. This storm would be bad. _Good thing Shun got back when he did._

Getting caught out in the oncoming weather could have been very unfortunate for Shun. My thoughts then shifted to the wolves that were out in the forest. Would they brave the storm that was making its way to the city? Surely they had been through worse.

Dan scratched his arm and said, "I'm going to try and get some sleep before the bottom falls out of the sky. Night." The others said things similar to what Dan had, and they all left to their rooms. Again, I was the last to go. Before I went to my own room, I looked through the window again and up at the sky.

I caught one last glimpse of the moon before a cloud covered it up. I had recently found out that the hunt would take place on the full moon. I found that kind of ironic, but it had to of been coincidental.

The people just wanted to get the wolves out of the way as soon as they possibly could, and the date had just happened to fall on the full moon. I brushed my thoughts away and turned out the lights of the sitting room.

_Shun_

Another nightmare about the hunt jolted me from my sleep. My eyes flew open, and I found myself still laying on the floor or my room at Murucho's. I pushed myself up, and was hit by a rush of vertigo that was strong enough to make me lay back down. _At least they keep the carpets clean._

There was a wailing outside, and I lifted my head up so I could see out of the window. I couldn't see anything, but I figured it was pouring down rain. Feeling that my vertigo was gone now, I attempted to sit up again, and succeeded. But I was still tired, and made my way over to one of the walls in the room.

I leaned my back against the sheetrock, and sighed. That was when I remembered why I had fallen asleep on the floor, and what had happened before that. I had stopped my shift. I had actually _stopped_ myself from turning into a wolf. Could that mean that I was starting to gain more control over my other side now? Or was it just a sheer stroke of luck? A fluke? Nothing more than a farce?

I hoped not. I couldn't afford to shift while I was in the city. It was a close enough call last night. Much too close for my comfort. The room lit up with a flash of light from outside, and it validated my theory about the rain. The pack was bound to have been caught out in that mess. _Maybe Rayden will get zapped by lightning. _

I sighed. Nobody could get _that_ lucky. I reached up and turned on the lamp that was on the nightstand next to me. The room came alive with the dim light. Now, I could see clearly again. I looked down at myself. I guessed I thought that I might have been a wolf without realizing it.

I just wanted to make sure that I was really _me._ But, who was the real 'me' now? There was a dead silence in my room, and the only sound was coming from the rain falling from the sky outside. I could have picked up on other sounds, but I didn't feel like using my newly heightened senses.

I just wanted to be normal for a little while, but even I knew that being normal wasn't an option any longer. It would never be an option again unless somebody found a cure for wolfism. My body let out a shudder from being chilled. I made my way over to the cleanly made bed, and got under the covers.

It was so much nicer than sleeping in one of those cots back at the safe house. I left the lamp on, feeling that if I turned it off, the whole room would turn back into the woods and I'd be right back where I left off. Did I really have it in me to leave all of this behind again?

Now that I might have some control over my shifts, I could stay. But I wasn't a hundred percent sure if I could will my body to change. That could have only been a one time deal. In fact, it still felt like my wolf form was right under my skin, waiting for a chance to break free and make me shift.

I knew that it would be safer for everyone if I left again, but I remembered why it had been so hard to leave in the first place. I buried my face into my pillow and could smell the scent of the detergent that was used to wash the pillowcase. I rolled back onto my side, and faced the lamp.

Then, I brought my hands out from under the blanket and looked at them. One moment, they were just like this. And then, they were paws. I liked having my hands more. I pulled them back under the covers and sighed. A tear formed in the corner of one of my eyes, and I quickly wiped it away.

I just couldn't see this being the rest of my life. It felt so impossible. It felt like one of those things that would only be temporary. But it was permanent. Forever permanent.

_Alice_

There was no way that you could tell that it was morning if you looked out of the window. The sky was still pitch black with storm clouds, and rain was pelting down in cascading waves. Overall, it was a crappy looking day. We were all sitting around at the diner table when Shun walked in.

_At least we know he's alive._ He seemed zoned out, and in his own little world of thoughts. I smiled and tried to bring him back to our world. "Morning, Shun." He looked at me and nodded his head. Dan narrowed his eyes at his friend and said, "Hey, don't brush Alice off like that."

I looked at the brunette and put my hands up. "It's ok, Dan." Shun had taken his usual seat down at the end of the table. Kato, along with several other butlers, came walking in and placed down our breakfast dishes. All of us had already started to eat our food, when I glanced down the table at Shun. He had hardly touched anything on his plate.

When I took a closer look at him, he looked like he had hardly slept any. I felt sorry for him, and suddenly wanted to know what happened to him during his disappearance. I wanted to help him out somehow, and I couldn't do that if he stayed holed up in his little shell.

After everyone was done eating, I chased after Shun. He was heading back towards his room when I grabbed his wrist and turned him around to face me. His eyes were filled with surprise from where I had startled him. _Yeah. Something's wrong. I shouldn't have been able to sneak up behind him._

His surprised look faded and he said, "You startled me for a moment." I was about to say something, but he cut me off. "Listen, I'm sorry about how I acted towards you at breakfast. I didn't get much sleep last night and didn't really want to be bothered."

Suddenly, all of the words I had thought up for my confrontation with Shun, slipped from my mouth. I was left with nothing to say. Instead, I stood there like an idiot and said, "It's ok." He stared at me with his amber eyes, and an image of the black wolf flashed through my mind.

"Were you going to tell me something?" he asked. I blinked and mentally shook myself back to Earth. "I just wanted to know if everything was okay. You were acting kind of off at breakfast." He gave me a sad smile and said, "Yeah. Sorry if I made you worry. I didn't mean to."

I nodded my head and said, "I know." Shun looked around the hall before saying, "Well, if that was everything, then I guess I'll go on back to my room." I didn't stop him, and watched him walk on down the hall. Why had backed out from confronting him?

I could have gotten the answer that could have helped him. I was tempted to run back after him and try again, but I didn't. Instead, I turned around in the hall and walked back to wherever the others were.

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><p><em>chapter title based off the song Raised By Wolves by Falling In Reverse.<em> ah! i can't stop sneezing! -.- i hate it when my dad sprays the dogs with flea spray...-sniffles- argh! i'm still peeved off because my Pharaoh Hounds didnt place in the dog show! or my Shiba Inu! -goes on rampage- o.o well, read, review, and other things. ~Copperpelt~


	22. House Of Wolves

_Shun_

I was taken off guard when Alice ran up behind me and grabbed my wrist. For once, I truly wasn't expecting something. Had I been that lost in my thoughts that I was losing sync with my surroundings? It could always be possible. My mind had been so screwed up since I came back to Murucho's. I didn't really mean to come back. I had just wander in the direction of Murucho's by accident.

I knew that by coming back, it would be hard to leave again. I rounded the corner of another hall, and quickly glanced back in time to see Alice walk off. Why had she stopped me earlier? Was she planning on confronting me? If that was her plan, then she backed out the last minute. I didn't know where I was walking to. I just kept going down hallway after hallway.

I halted at a corner, and carefully glanced around. I had made a complete loop, and was about to walk back in the sitting room where the others were gathered at. They were all seated on the couches, and talking. Apparently none of them had seen me. So, I stayed hidden behind the corner and eavesdropped on their conversations. Nothing popped out to me; it was just their normal topics. Seeing that there wasn't anything of my interest, I turned around and started back down the hall.

I stopped and a window in the hall. The curtains were closed, but I knew what it looked like on the other side of the glass. I pulled the curtains open, and could hardly see due to the pouring rainstorm. I shiver went through my body as I imagined how cold it had to be out there. The longer I looked out the window, the more I was able to make out the shapes of buildings out in the distance.

It seemed like the power was out in certain buildings, but it was difficult to tell with the thickness of the falling rain. I looked further out in the distance, and knew that I was looking at the forest that I had run from. The forest that was home to the people, who were also wolves.

Under my skin, I could feel the animal inside of me begging to go back there. Half of me didn't belong in the forest, but the other half did. While staring out in the direction of the forest, I thought I had seen one of the wolves walk out into the opening that marked the edge of the park. I blinked, and lost my focus. Now, all I could see was my reflection in the glass.

There couldn't have been anyway that I could have seen that far with such little visibility. I was part wolf, not hawk. I stared at my reflection for a moment. The rain that had stuck to the other side of the glass, looked like tears on the face of my reflection.

My eyes looked sad on their own, and the tear-stain rain drops didn't help either. I hadn't ever given it much thought to how drastically becoming a wolf could have changed me. _No wonder the others looked at me like I was somebody else._ And they had every right to.

I _was_ somebody else now. A person who wasn't just human, but animal. I finally pulled myself away from the window before somebody wondered why I was staring at it. I didn't want to look at the new me anymore. It reminded me too much of who, and what, I used to be.

A short, droning sound flew through the hall, and the lights then shut off. I heard somebody squeal down the hall, and I figured that it was most likely Julie. I felt my way down the hall with my hand against the wall, and found the sitting room where the others were.

All of them were standing up and looking around the room in confusion. I could make out the silhouette of Murucho. He was holding his hands up and said, "Everyone, just calm down. I'll have Kato turn on the back-up power, and everything will be fine."

They hadn't seen me walk into the room, because I was standing right behind them when Alice turned around and walked right into my chest. I saw her tilt her head up and look at me. "Shun? Is that you? I'm sorry. I didn't know you were behind me." I curved the tip of my mouth up in a smile, but knew she wouldn't be able to see it.

"It's ok. It might have been a good idea to let you know I was here." The others had turned around and looking in my direction now. They obviously didn't know I was there either. Pounding footsteps tumbled into the room, and I saw the dark shadow of a skinny looking man.

_Kato._ He reached into one of his pockets and pulled out a flashlight. The beam of light up the places that he pointed it at. He was panting from where he had run upstairs. Murucho asked him, "Is there something wrong with the generator?" I could see water dripping from Kato's clothes, and remembered that the generator and electrical room wasn't in the mansion itself.

"There's something in the electrical room." He held the flashlight under his arm, and pulled out a white handkerchief from another pocket, then wiped away the rain water from his face. Murucho asked him, "What's out there?" Kato put away his handkerchief, and put the flashlight back in his hand. "There's a wolf."

_Shun_

My eyes widened. A wolf was out in the electrical room, and I knew that it wasn't just any wolf. It was one from the pack in the woods; the ones who shifted like me. I just knew it had to be. That was the only kind of wolf I had encounter since I was opened up to this secret world.

"Are you sure it's a wolf?" asked Runo, who sounded full of shock. Kato had the flashlight pointed in the direction of Alice, and I could see her sneaking a glance at me. And I knew why. She was thinking about when I was bitten by Rayden. But she didn't know the story that had followed along with that bite. Kato then asked, "Should I call Animal Control and tell them to remove the wolf?"

Murucho was about to speak, but I cut him off. "I'll take care of the wolf." All eyes shot to me. Quickly, I told them, "I just don't see a point in going through all that trouble to get rid of it when we can just run it off and save everyone some time." Nobody said anything for a moment, and I was sure that they were about to brush off my proposal for getting rid of the wolf on my own.

I knew that the wolf wasn't going to harm me when it saw that I was like it. For all I knew, it could have been another new wolf who had shifted and wandered into the electrical house for shelter. "I'll be fine," I told them in a last ditch effort to turn their opinions around. Alice walked up next to me and said, "I say we let Shun try. What could it hurt?"

I glanced down at her, and she was looking back. I could usually read Alice's reason for doing something, but not this time. I couldn't pick out her motive. She was the one who had been so protective and defensive around me while I was in the hospital, and all the times I vanished. Now she was just letting me going into a dark room with a carnivorous animal?

This wasn't the Alice I expected. Not at all. And the others seemed to think the same thing as well. Murucho scratched the back of his neck and said, "Well, I guess we could give it a shot. But, be careful, kay?" I nodded my head, and Kato led me out and down the hall.

The others were right behind me as we walked all the way outside. Rain was pouring harder than it had been earlier, and it still looked like night instead of daytime. Kato turned around and told us, "I couldn't find any umbrellas, so we're going to have to run through this."

We braced ourselves, then darted out into the pelting rain. It could have been freezing ice water falling from the sky. Each drop made me shiver with cold. Our feet squished in the muddy grass as we ran around the massive building. When the electrical building came into sight, all of us started to run faster to escape the cold rain. We made it under a wrap-around awning.

All of us were dripping wet, and shaking. The short run had sped up my heart, but not enough to even start a shift. Which I was thankful for. Kato pointed to the closed metal door. "It's right through there." I nodded my head, and walked up to the door.

I halted in front of it, and turned around to look at the others. They were all waiting for me to go in, but they also showed signs of not wanting me to go through with this. They'd find out soon, that I'd be perfectly fine. I pushed open the door, and stepped inside.

It was pitch dark inside, and I popped my head back out of the door. "Kato, could I borrow that flashlight?" He nodded and handed out the yellow, plastic flashlight. I thanked him and went back inside of the electrical house. It could have doubled as a guest house, or a large apartment.

Lining the walls, were circuit breakers, wires, and all other kinds of electrical equipment. The whole building was just one massive room though. I swung the flashlight around, and it fell right on the wolf. It was hunkered down, and its ears were laid all the way back.

I checked behind me, and saw that the door was almost closed. The others wouldn't see or hear me talking with whoever this wolf was. I held up my hands to show that I wasn't a threat. "Calm down. I'm not here to hurt you." The ears perked up, and the shape of the animal changed into one of a human.

When she stood upright, I saw who it was. Cynthia. I had seen her in the pack before, but since I stayed so distant from them, I only knew her name. Nothing else about her; real name, back-story, etc. "Shun?" I nodded my head. "Yeah. What are you doing here?"

She pulled her bright, red hair back into a ponytail. It was damp with rain, and stuck to her arm. "Wesley sent me after you when you ran off last night, and I got caught up in the rain. That's when I found this place and tried to wait out the storm."

I raised my eyebrows and said, "How did that work for you when Kato walked in here and found you?" She glared at me and said, "Shut up. In my defense, I didn't have to come and get you." She held a stubborn gaze at me. "Why does it matter to Wesley if I'm gone or not?" I asked harshly. She walked up to me, and hit me upside my head. "Ow! What the hell!"

She rolled her eyes and snapped, "It matters to Wesley, and all of us because you're still a new wolf, and unstable. None of us can afford to have our secret blown because you decided to run off." I narrowed my eyes at her. "What if I'm not unstable anymore?" She raised her eyebrows and said, "You got control over your shifts?" She put one of her hands on her hips, and waited for my reply.

"Well, I stopped one of my shifts. If that counts." Her eyes grew a little wider. "Stopped a shift?" I nodded my head and asked, "Is there something wrong with that?" There was a knock on the metal door behind me. "Are you okay in there, Shun?" asked Murucho. I yelled back, "Yeah. I'm just trying to calm it down." Cynthia narrowed her eyes at me. "Calm me down, huh?"

I rolled my eyes. Seemed like everyone in the pack had arrogance that made me want to scream. "Just tell me what's so shocking about stopping a shift." She sighed and said, "As far as I know, that hasn't ever been done before. If it has, then I haven't ever heard about it, and Wesley hasn't mentioned it either." Could I have possibly been the only one in the pack, or in history, that stopped their shift without the means of the cortisol?

"So, you're not going back to the pack with me, then?" asked Cynthia. I shook my head. "No." She held up her hands and shook her head. "Fine by me. I'll tell Wesley that you didn't wanna come back." She started back towards the door, and I grabbed her shoulder and stopped her.

"If you're planning on going back out there, you might want to go as a wolf. Because that's what everyone thinks is in here." Cynthia glared back at me and said harshly, "Actually, there's two. Maybe you should shift to and show them that." Her words were strung and dipped in venom.

My eyes widened at her remark. She, along with the rest of the pack, knew that I didn't like being a wolf. I had even heard one of them say that I had no pride in being one, and they were right. How could I have pride in being something that shouldn't exist?

Cynthia shifted into her wolf form, and shot out of the building and into the rain. I heard the others gasp as she ran past them. I walked out under the awning with the others. Cynthia had stopped, and was looking dead at me.

She let out a howl, and vanished off into the storm. Julie clapped her hands together and squealed, "You got rid of the wolf! Yay!" I put on a fake smile and said, "Looks like I did." _Now only if I could get rid of the one in me._

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><p><em>chapter title based off the song House Of Wolves by My Chemical Romance.<em> -sings- it's raining, it's pouring. my old man is snoring. XD lol. but yes, it is pouring rain where i'm at, so i'm going to get this chapter up before the power goes off. OH! and happy late v-day everyone! ^^ read, review, and other things. ~Copperpelt~


	23. Dogs Unleashed

_Alice_

When that wolf ran out from the electrical room, I was shocked. I hadn't expected Shun to get it out. At least, not in one piece. Then he ran out of the building, and stood under the awning alongside us. The wolf stopped running, and stood out in the rain.

It's eyes were fixed right on Shun, and it threw its head back and howled. It took another glance at him, the darted off out of sight. "Dude, how did you get that wolf out of there?" asked Dan, who was staring in the wolf-free electrical room. Shun shrugged his shoulders and said, "I just coaxed it out. Simple as that." There was a tried, dragging sound in his voice.

While he had been in there, I could have sworn I heard him talking. At first, I thought that he was talking to the wolf to calm it down. Then, I heard another voice. A female one. The only thing that had been in there was the wolf, and later on, Shun.

Nobody else was there. I couldn't figure it out. Had I been hearing things? The others were running back through the rain to get back inside of Murucho's mansion, but I grabbed Runo's arm and made her stay behind with me. "Alice? Is something wrong?" I stared at my blue-haired friend; the only one who I could trust to keep a secret.

I asked, "Did you hear anyone else in the electrical room talking? Other than Shun?" Runo raised an eyebrow and shook her head. "No. All I heard was his voice. Maybe you heard the wind or something." I let go of Runo's arm and nodded my head.

"You might be right. I guess I was just hearing things." Runo smiled and ran off through the rain before she got soaked more. _I know what I heard._ I glanced back in the electrical room. Kato was the only person in there now. He was going down the panels and flipping on switches.

I stepped back out under the awning and saw the lights in the mansion flip on. Kato stepped out and stood beside me. He smiled and said, "Good. I turned on the right switches." I put on a smile and said back to him, "What would we do without you, Kato?"

He chuckled and walked back in the electrical room to double check everything. The storm seemed to be picking up, and I hurried through the rain and back into the mansion. The short time I spent out there, had soaked me straight to the bone. My hair was stuck to my face and neck, and even my arms. Unable to tolerate being in my wet clothes, I hurried up to my room to change.

I stopped in the hall and looked at a clock. The time said it was only a little past noon. _Could have fooled me._ Outside, it could have been midnight. Not two in the afternoon. Once I had changed, I stepped into my bathroom and grabbed a towel, which I used to dry my wet hair with.

Still towel drying my hair, I walked out of my room to join back up with the others. I halted when I saw Shun at the end of the hall. He was leaning against the wall like he had been when I found him in the alley. He was also holding onto his sides, as if he were in pain.

I hurried over towards him, not sure what was wrong with him. Had that wolf actually hurt him without us knowing? As I got closer, I noticed that his body had stopped shuddering, and his breathing had slowed. He was sitting on the shins of his legs, and his shoulders were hunched over to where I couldn't see his face.

"Shun? Shun, what's wrong? Talk to me." I shook his shoulder to try and make him know that I was there. His muscles felt tense under my touch. "Shun! Snap out of it." I was pleading now. There was no way that I was about to leave him until I was sure that he would be fine while I went to get help.

I was about to say his name again, and then felt something hit my shoulders. I felt my body get pushed backwards. When my back hit the floor, the air was knocked out of me. There was a heavy pressure on both of my shoulders still. I opened my eyes and saw Shun had pinned me to the floor.

His eyes were brighter than usual, and there was almost an animalistic tint to them. I was still too in shock to tell him to get off of me. Between the fact that he had been hurting one moment, and pounced me the next, had pretty much caught me off guard.

I could feel my heart pounding in my chest. What had gotten into him? Why had he jumped me and pinned me to the floor? I had to admit there had been those moments when I wanted to be close to Shun, but not like this. What was happening at that moment was a little too close for my comfort. I gulped, and waited to see what was going to happen next.

_Shun_

After getting Cynthia out of the electrical room and back to the forest, I hurried back to the mansion with the others. All that was on my mind was everything she said. She had made it sound like I was the bad guy in all of this. Did not wanting to turn into a wolf make me the enemy?

It made me sound sane, in my opinion. I growled in aggravation. Would there be one moment when things weren't piled up against me? Julie looked down at what she was wearing, which had been soaked along with the rest of us. She groaned and stomped her foot to the floor.

"This was dry-clean only!" Dan rolled his eyes and said, "Oh, what's the big deal? You have three other shirts like that one." Julie narrowed her eyes at Dan, and I could see the flames shoot out from around the silver-haired girl. "This was a gift from my Mom! And it's the real thing! Not some cheap knock-off!"

Dan's eyes were wide with fear as Julie went off on him. I smiled as Dan begged Julie for mercy. But my smile slowly faded as an all too familiar burning started on my arm and worked its way up. I held on tightly to my arm where Rayden had first bit me. _Again?_

I backed out of the room without the others noticing. Quickly, I ran in the direction of my room. I had stopped my shift once, why wouldn't I be able to do it again? My body was already shuddering from the oncoming shift. I needed to get back to my room and try and stop it again like I had last time.

Heck, it might not be as painful as the previous time I stopped the shift. My leg buckled under me, and I dropped to my knees. I tried to get up, but pain had rammed into my body and made it difficult to get back up on my feet. _Looks like I'm stuck here._

The location I was in wasn't a problem as long as none of the others came that way. If they did, then I'd have to stop my shift successfully. There wasn't any room for error. My shoulders hunched over as I braced myself. "Shun?" My eyes widened. Through my black hair, I saw Alice. _Damn!_

I didn't look up at her, but kept my gaze down in front of me. I couldn't let her distract me. I needed to focus on the task at hand. My shift was putting up a hell of a fight, but I finally got in to stop. But something wasn't right about it this time.

Part of me felt human, and the other part felt like my wolf form. It wasn't like how it usually felt. I could plainly tell that part of me wasn't completely whole. I was stuck in some in between state of my shift. Still partially human, but not completely wolf.

I felt Alice's hand touch my shoulder, and my muscles tensed up in defense. _Alice, go away._ In this in between state, there was no telling how unpredictable I could be. When she shook my shoulder again, instincts kicked in and I jumped at her. Without even realizing it, I had pinned her to the floor.

My wolf instincts were too much for me to handle. I had no control over them, or myself for that matter. Her eyes were filled with shock and confusion. If I had any kind of control over myself, I would have gotten off of her and been apologizing until I couldn't speak anymore.

Even I knew this wasn't me. This was the wolf side of me that was in power over my actions. Yes, the wolf in me was a _part _of me, but it had its own instincts and such. The only thing that made me _me_ while I was a wolf, were the memories that I had learned to retain.

_Get a hold of yourself! Stop before you hurt somebody!_ My body wasn't listening to my mind, and I kept Alice pinned down. She wasn't saying anything, or screaming at me to get off of her. I knew she didn't want this because of the look in her eyes.

She was probably stunned by shock and fear of what would happen to her next. All I could so was hope that I could gain control before something bad happened.

_Alice_

Shun's face was closer to mine now, and I heard him make a sound. _Did he just purr?_ No. The sound he made was more like….A growl. What was going on? Had he been drugged or lost his mind? What if that wolf in the electrical room had bitten or scratched him and given him rabies or something like that? I let out a whimper as his face neared mine. He was doing something like sniffing me.

On a scale of 1-10 of how scared I was, I was probably at about a 12. Or higher. Shun's face was right next to mine now. Our eyes were level, and I could fell his breath mingle with mine between us. Even though I was scared out of my mind, I couldn't help but blush.

I hadn't ever been this close to Shun before, and it was the first time I had really _seen _his eyes. They were so much like that black wolf's, that it was scary. And vice versa. For a split second, I saw the black wolf in front of me where Shun was. I gasped, and Shun tilted his head to side in confusion.

_Just like a wolf._ His eyes then widened, and they changed back to the dark amber that they normally were. It was like he came back to his senses. He first looked at me, around the room, and back at me. He then quickly got off of me and backed down the hall.

I got up on my feet and looked at him. Shun was staring at me with wide eyes, as if trying to figure out why he had done this. He took one last look at me and mouthed something like, _"I'm sorry."_ Then, he took off down the hall. I chased after him.

I deserved questions after what just happened. I followed him down to his room. The door slammed shut as soon as I got there. I pulled on the knob and knocked on the door. "Shun, let me in. I want to talk to you. Shun!" The door didn't ever open.

_Shun_

When I finally got control over myself, I was able to see how close to Alice I had gotten. Not only that, but I had also snapped out of it during a growl. That little action didn't help my case. I shot down the hall, knowing that Alice was most likely behind me.

This was why all of those wolves ran from their lives and homes. Well, one reason for that. I slipped into my room and slammed the door shut behind me. I leaned against the door, and felt Alice knocking on the other side of it. "Shun, let me in!" I couldn't believe she wanted to confront me after what just happened.

I was sure that she would be too afraid. I didn't open that door though. How the hell was I supposed to explain why I jumped her and went completely beast on her? There was no explanation for that. She kept knocking on the other side of the door, and finally said, "You have to come out of there some time, Shun."

I heard her walk off down the hall, and I slid down to the base of the door. My hands were shaking either from the events that just took place, or from halfway stopping my shift. This had done it. This little altercation had marked the stop of my stay with the others. If this happened once, then it was bound to happen again. It was official now; I had to leave now.

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><p><em>chapter title based off the song Dogs Unleashed by Tokio Hotel.<em> omg don't you hate that awkward moment when a guy turns halfway into a wolf and attacks you? -.^ lol. i know i do. sorry for not uploading yesterday. i was having a tiny tiny tiny bit of writer's block (called laziness) but overall i was talking with somebody and got caught up. :') lol. ^^ well, read, review, and other things. ~Copperpelt~


	24. Stray

_Alice_

I growled out of aggravation and stomped off down the hall. It was clear to see that Shun wasn't about to open up that door and talk with me. Part of me was happy that he didn't let me in, because I was still shocked from being pinned to the floor.

Yet, another part of me did want to speak with him and get to the bottom of things. _He'll have to come out of that room at some point._ I stumbled upon the room where the others had gathered. They all had changed out of their wet clothes. The only thing that suggested we had been out in the rain, was the still half-wet hair.

Julie looked up at me and said, "Whoa. Alice, what the heck happened to you?" I blinked, unable to figure out what she was talking about. Did she know about what happened between me and Shun back in the hall? Then, I turned to my left slightly and saw my reflection in a decorative mirror.

My hair was disheveled and anxiety was written all over my face. I hadn't even given any thought to how I looked after Shun jumped me. Since my hair looked fluffed out slightly, I knew exactly what to play it off as. "Guess the rain frizzed my hair out some."

I put on a smile to make the act more believable. Julie stood up from the couch and said, "But you look like you feel like crap." Runo hit her in the arm and said, "Julie…" The silver haired girl held her hands up in defense. "Sorry. I'm just trying to make sure that Alice is ok."

I stepped between them before an argument could break out. "I promise both you of that I'm ok. I might just be coming down with something. It's nothing. Really." I gave them another smile, and they both seemed to believe me this time. Dan then walked up to us.

"Question. Have any of you guys seen Shun?" I looked down the hall where I had just come from. "I think he's in his room." Dan nodded his head. I wanted to tell them about the 'encounter' I had with Shun, but I didn't want them to think any different of him.

Dan and the others could be irrational at times. Well, Murucho really wasn't in that group; he could be logical. But Dan, Runo, and Julie would probably freak out if I told them that Shun pinned me to the floor. That wouldn't be putting in a good word for Shun, who we had just been reunited with.

Whatever he had gone through while he had been missing, had seemed to have changed him. A lot. I wasn't sure if I liked this new side of Shun, or not. I glanced down the hall, and saw his room door was open slightly. I saw this as my chance to confront him.

I darted down the hall, ignoring the questions from the others behind me. When I got there, I opened up the door and saw his room was empty. I checked every corner, and even walked around the halls. He couldn't have gone far, right?

His room was empty, but it had been empty before because he didn't have anything with him when we found him. The others had run up behind me. They were asking why I took off down the hall. I didn't saw anything. I was too busy trying to find out where Shun could have gone off to.

Had he run off because of what happened back in the hall? Dan was looking in Shun's room and said, "Where'd Shun go now?" I shook my head and said, "I don't know. But I'm going to find out."

_Shun_

The moment that I was sure that Alice was no longer outside of my room, I made a dash for it. I ran all the way to the first floor of the mansion, and hide behind one of the huge columns that held up the roof. I looked around, and made sure that nobody had followed or seen me.

I also made sure that I was out of sight from the security cameras. Lucky for me, I was in their blind spots. The lights flickered as the thunder rumbled outside. The rain would be good cover for me. I sighed and reached into my pocket, then pulled out a blue capped syringe.

When I had ran from the woods and pack, I had tried to grab a syringe of cortisol, but grabbed the adrenaline instead. I didn't realize this until a while back. It was a good thing I hadn't thrown it away or tossed it to the side. Because I needed it now.

I took off the blue cap, and took a deep breathe. I needed to induce a shift if I wanted to put a good distance between myself and the mansion. I stuck the needle in my arm, and injected the adrenaline into my vein. Already, I could feel it going to work, and took off for the door before I shifted inside of the mansion. I ran out onto the streets, which were flooded with water.

The downpour of rain had made a small river run down where the street had once been. No cars or people were out in this storm. Anybody who had a brain was locked up inside of their houses to stay safe and dry. I looked back up at the mansion.

I hated to leave again, but if I lost control once, then it would certainly happen again. And I didn't want to take any of those chances of putting my friends in harms way. I had gotten lucky that I had a slight control when I jumped Alice.

If I hadn't, then things could have turned out worse than they had. Adrenaline based shifts were nowhere near as painful as the random ones, but they still hurt. Quickly, my form changed, and I took off down the flooded streets. The water came over my paws, and already my black fur was soaking wet. I looked back and forth. _Where do I go now?_ I knew I didn't want to go back to the pack. No. I _couldn't _go back there.

Where did that leave me to go then? I lifted my head up and looked at the raindrops that were falling from the black sky. I couldn't stay with the ones who were closest to me, and I couldn't stay with the ones who were like me. There was no home for me. Not anymore, at least.

I started walking down the street. Water rushed down on the backs of my legs, and rain pelted me from above. I went down several streets, still not knowing where I was headed. The rain had made me cold, and I could feel the adrenaline starting to wear off.

Soon, I'd shift back. Maybe. My last adrenaline induced shift had caused me to stay as a wolf longer than intended. I stopped walking and looked down at a large drainage pipe that was running under another street. It looked big enough that I could squeeze in; whether wolf or human.

I slid down the muddied hill, and landed down in the water filled ditched. Snow had melted and made the water a freezing cold slushy. I stepped up in the drainage pipe. It was just above the water. If it rained any harder, then water might reach into the pipe.

Other than that risk, it was pretty much dry. The roof of the pipe was about a foot and a half from my head; plenty of room for me. I laid down on the cold concrete, and sighed. This would have to do until further notice. There was a small puddle of water in front of me that had come from a tiny crack in the pipe.

It didn't bother me though. Off in the distance, the chorus of my pack's howls started up. Normally, I would have called back. But I didn't. No longer was I part of them. I didn't want to be a part of them from the very start. Instead of calling back, I growled.

I was almost happy that the hunt was taking place. I stopped myself from going any further into that thought. The hunt had totally slipped my mind. How many days were left till then?

It had to be a good ways away, or else Wesley wouldn't still be in the woods. He had clearly said that he was going to move them or hide them somehow. The pack was still howling their same mournful song.

_Shun_

My eyes opened up, and I was still in the drainage pipe. I saw my paws and sighed. _Still a wolf._ I raised up my head and yawned. The sun was out now, and made the water on the grass glisten. All of the snow had been washed away from the ground, and melted with the water it had mixed with. Even though the sun was out again, it was still cold.

I stood up on my feet, and lumbered out to the mouth of the pipe. All of the storm clouds from yesterday were gone, and revealed a blue sky. "Oh! A doggy!" I looked up and saw a little girl pointing down at me from the top of the hill. She was too young to know that I was a wolf.

A woman walked into my view and looked down at where the little girl was pointing, which was right at me. I backed up a little into the drain pipe. She gasped and scooped up the kid. "Wolf!" I looked around and darted out of the pipe before anyone could show up. In the city, the wolves were fair game.

Nobody would go to jail for shooting me as long as I was in the limits of the city. The only place that I had a chance of not getting shot, was in the woods. That was the last place I could go. People gasped as I ran past them. Wolves had become pariahs in the city.

The way people acted when they saw a wolf, you'd think the world was coming to an end. I sped up and kept on running. If I stopped, then I was just that much more of an easy target. Instinct was driving me now, and I ran right into the woods. I slowed down when I realized where I was. I wanted to turn back around, but that would be like jumping from the pot and into the fire.

_I just have to stay out of the way of the pack._ The area that was covered by the woods was so massive, that the odds of them running into me were almost zero to none. I made my way a little bit deeper into the forest, in case somebody had decided to chase after me.

My muscles relaxed, and I wasn't on edge anymore. A feeling of security and safety came over me. For my wolf form, this forest was home. Even if I didn't belong in it anymore. I froze when I heard something snap behind me. My ears were at attention, and I turned around.

I was greeted by a person, who had a gun in one of his hands. His eyes showed he was surprised to have seen me. I lowered my body to the ground and growled. He reached around for the gun, and my instincts took over from there. I lunged at the guy, and bit down on the calf of his leg.

A coppery taste flooded my mouth, but I kept attacking the man. He was yelling and cursing. His arms were flailing around in the air as he tried to get me off of him, but I didn't let up. I didn't have any control over what I was doing.

This was like what happened back at Murucho's, but only worse. I was actually _hurting_ somebody. It seemed like all of the stress I had been feeling, was being let out by attacking this guy. I was breathing heavily, and backed away from his still body.

All I could smell in the air was blood. Nothing else. Not the scent of trees or animals that had passed by earlier in the day. The man still hadn't moved. I slowly approached him again. I had torn apart his clothes, that were now stained with his own blood. I nudged him with my muzzle, and he didn't make a sound.

My heart sped up when I started to figure out what I had done. I shook my head. _No. No, I couldn't have._ I looked around, expecting help to arrive. Of course, it probably wouldn't show up for a while. He was in the middle of the woods, and nobody probably knew he was out there.

I whined. Should I leave? Stay? I paced back and forth, unable to make a decision. It was bad enough that the wolves were already being hunting cause of the death of a kid. Now, the hunt might be moved up because another person was killed. _And by me._

I tried nudging the man awake again, but I knew it was pointless. I looked down and saw that my paws were in the pool of his blood that had started to soak into the wet ground. I jumped back and out of the blood. I couldn't come to terms with the reality that I had killed somebody.

It might have been a good thing that he was dead though. If I had just bitten him, then he'd turn into a wolf as well. And nobody deserved to go through that. Then again, nobody deserved to be mauled to death by a wolf either. I whined, and slowly backed away without taking my eyes from the man. I then turned, and ran off.

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><p><em>chapter title based off the theme song Stray from the anime Wolf's Rain.<em> this one took me a while. plus, i had a chore list and was texting. :/ i dont know if i'm going to update my other one today seeing the time. i'll have a plenty of time since it's a 3 day weekend. XP read, review, and other things. ~Copperpelt~


	25. Burn

_Alice_

I hurried outside in hopes of catching Shun at the last moment. There wasn't any doubt in my mind that he had run from the mansion. He had become somewhat predictable. I looked around outside, and saw no sign of Shun. Apparently we were too late to look for him. He was probably long gone by now. But why? What did he gain from running away again?

Out in the woods, I heard the wolves howling. I had noticed that every time something concerned Shun, they seemed to howl. Maybe it was just a strange coincidence, but it was still something that I had noticed. Dan took my wrist and said, "Come on, Alice. He's not out here. We'll worry about finding him in the morning." I allowed Dan to pull me back inside.

I looked up at the corners of the ceiling, and saw the security cameras. If we could see the footage, then we'd be able to know when he ran off. I turned to Murucho and asked, "Could you have Kato pull the camera footage?" He nodded his head and told us to follow him. He then took us upstairs to a small room, that held about twenty little TV screens. Murucho began typing on the keyboard in front of the screens, and the one in the middle went black.

Another footage popped up. He said, "This is from the past two hours. That should be plenty of time to see when Shun ran off." We all huddled around to watch the small screen. Murucho sped up the footage until we saw Shun. He then hit the play button. I watched as Shun dove behind one of the columns in the main lobby.

He was totally out of sight from the camera, so none of us had any idea of what Shun might have been doing behind there. In a couple of minutes, he then dashed out of the mansion. This was about the time that I noticed that his room door was open.

That would mean that he ran about the time that I walked away from his room. _I knew I shouldn't have left until he came out._ I clenched my hands into fists. I just wanted to help Shun. Was that too much to ask to make sure that somebody I cared about was okay? _Apparently so._

I looked down at Murucho and asked him, "Do you have any of the footage from the outside security cameras?" There could have been a chance that they caught which way he ran. Murucho shook his head. "The cameras were taken down for maintenance when the storm hit. They're still not up."

_So we have no outside footage…..Can we ever win?_ I walked out of the little room, and into the hall. The lights were bright compared to what I just walked out from, and I had to squint in order to see. Runo then walked out from the room, doing the same as I had. "Alice, you alright?"

I nodded my head. "I'm fine. Just tired of playing this game. All I want is to help Shun and make sure he's okay." She put her hand on my shoulder and said, "We all want that, Alice."

_But not like I do._ The others then walked out, and Murucho closed the room back up. I wondered how I had never noticed that room before. Probably because I had never really been on this floor that much. I sighed and walked down to my room.

_Alice_

I woke up with the surprise of sunlight filling up my room. I jumped out of my bed and looked out of the window. All of the rain had stopped, but the ditches and streets were still holding water. In the grass, the snow was no longer covering the ground with white.

It still looked frigid and cold out there though. People were already out and about on the streets. _Does this city ever sleep?_ I slipped into my regular clothes and left my room to meet up with the others. We weren't going to involved the police in Shun's disappearance this time.

Or his grandfather. The old man had just been told that Shun was found, and now he was gone again. We all agreed that the he didn't need to know about this and go through it again. I found them all gathered around a TV in our usual sitting room. Their faces were filled with shock.

"What's going on?" I asked. My initial thought was that they had heard something about Shun on the news. I walked up behind the couch and looked at the TV. They were going back and forth between some picture of a man, and the woods next to the park. They took down the captions before I had a chance to read them.

There was then footage of a large group of people standing around in the park. They were chanting something about the wolves. _Oh no. What's happened now?_ The reporter held up a microphone to one of the people. They said into it, "See? This is why we have to kill those things! They don't know the difference between who's going to harm them or not. All they know is how to kill."

There was a chorus of 'yes' behind the man, and he nodded his head to show he had made his statement. The channel then went to a commercial. I asked the others again, "What happened?" Murucho turned around to face me. "Some guy who worked for a nature magazine was in the forest to take pictures, and he got killed by a wolf. The only thing he had on him for protection was a tranquilizer gun."

I knew now why all of those people were worked up. The wolves had claimed another person. There would probably be a massive push for the hunt to bumped up. I told Murucho, "Don't let your uncle make the hunt earlier. Please."

Murucho nodded and said, "Don't worry. I talked to him about it. They're not moving it a single day." _Good._ I started to wonder about which wolf killed the man. Could it have been the black wolf that reminded me of Shun? Or was it the gray one who bit him?

The news came back on, and the reporter mention the date of the hunt, and how it would not be changed under these circumstances. But this event would only mean the hunt would be more brutal, and that more poachers would be sneaking into the forest to seek unneeded revenge on the wolves. Things only seemed to be getting worse.

_Shun_

I watched as people finally found the man that I killed. They didn't see me though, for I was hidden in the dying underbrush. I hated myself for what I did. I wished for nothing more than to go back and stop myself from killing that guy. Especially after hearing what one of the people who found him said.

They easily identified him as some photographer for a magazine. That wasn't even the biggest blow. What really did me in, was when they said that the gun he had on him, was nothing more than a tranquilizer gun. He wasn't in the forest to hurt anything, and I had thought he was.

How was I able to know though? All I saw was a gun. They hauled his body off, and out of the forest. I didn't want to think of the aftershock this would cause. But I knew that it wouldn't be good. Something was bound to happen. I walked away from the area, not wanting to keep staring at what my actions had done.

The fallen leaves were starting to dry from the rain, and they let out small crunches as my paws stepped on them. I picked up a scent in the air, and turned to see Cynthia sitting next to a tree. She said to me, _"Enjoying the taste of what being a real wolf is like?"_

I growled and snapped at her. Couldn't she just mind her own business? I then began to think that if she was in this part of the forest, then the rest of the pack would be as well. _"Are the others around here?"_ She shook her head. Her fur was still damp from the rain she had ran through to get back to the forest. Mine was as well.

She said, _"I'm by myself. I was hunting in the area when I heard the commotion from over there. And wouldn't you know it, I find you there. I thought you weren't coming back to the forest?"_ I let out a low, threatening growl. She needed to back off. I was in no mood to be toyed with.

_"Something came up and I had to leave," _I said back to her. She walked away from the tree, and started to pace around me. _"What could have been bad enough to drive you back here?"_ I snapped at her, and she jumped back. An arrogant look was plastered on her face. _"None of your business."_ Cynthia let out something that sounded similar to a laugh, but for a wolf.

_"I think it is something of my business. I need to know these things so I can report them back to the pack."_ I lunged at her, but she jumped back again. _"Don't you dare tell them I'm in this forest!"_ She narrowed her eyes at me and asked, _"Or what? You're all bark and no bite. Then again, you did kill somebody. You might have a spine after all."_

When I lunged at her this time, I actually landed a hit. I had her pinned down to the ground like I had Alice. My teeth were bared and right next to her throat. I snarled at her. Cynthia's eyes were showing me fear and shock. I snapped at her, _"Look who has the spine now."_

She whimpered as I dug my claws into her side. I said to her, _"If you so much as say a word about me being back here, you'll regret it. As far as you know, you haven't seen a trace of me here." _She nodded her head, and when I got off of her, she scrambled to her feet and ran off.

I turned and started off the other way. I was sure that she wasn't going to say anything to Wesley or the rest of the pack. Not after how scared she looked. Cynthia certainly wasn't expecting me to fight back. She was planning on me just taking her crap. _Not this time._ I walked through the forest until it was dark. _I'll have to find somewhere to sleep tonight._ I looked around for a shelter that would do for the night.

I found a small hole at the base of a tree. It would be fine as long as I stayed a wolf, but how much longer would that be? I hadn't even shown a sign of shifting yet. I could remain a wolf for the rest of the night for all I knew. Or, I could shift and be stuck without a shelter again. _It'll be better if I find a larger shelter. Just in case._

A large rock was jutting out from a hillside, and I climbed up to the top to scope out the area. I could see better in the dark than I could as a human, thanks to my heightened senses. But I still wasn't able to see everything. Only the objects that were about thirty feet from me.

I scanned the area from the rock, and caught a whiff of something. It was a strong, pungent odor that burned my sinuses. I rubbed my muzzle with my paw, but still smelled the scent. It was coming downwind of me. Right at the base of the hillside that I was on. I narrowed my eyes to see if I could see anything.

All I could pick out was the odor. I had smelled it before, but couldn't place it. Far down in front of me, I saw several floating dots of bright orange. They were followed by the scent of burning wood. Suddenly, I placed the scent I had picked up before.

_Gasoline._ The little orange dots I saw, then turned into a huge wall of fire that was eating its way up the hillside and along the forest. I turned to run, and felt my back paw slip on the rock. I fell off, and tumbled down the hill.

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><p>it has been a long day. o.o too long. at least i don't have any school tomorrow. maybe that's why. lots and lots of suspense in this chapter. XP lol. i love it so. read, review, and other things. ~Copperpelt~<p> 


	26. Through The Fire And Flames

_Shun_

I dug my claws into the ground. Dirt and leaves were kicked up as I tried to stop myself from falling into the flames that were consuming the forest below. I finally hung onto a tree root, and pulled myself up. The fire was spreading rapidly across the trees, and making its way steadily up the hillside. I tried to run back up the hill, but the leaves were still slightly damp.

All I did was keep slipping and falling back down. Running up wasn't going to be an option. The only other way out for me, was to run right along with the flames. Or get caught up in them. Seeing that I didn't have much time, I took off beside the wall of fire that was burning the trees and undergrowth. Smoke was already filling the air, which made my eyes water and my vision blurry.

My sinuses burned from the smoke as well, and I let out hacking coughs. A wall of fire cut me off from my path, making me skid to a halt. I looked around for another way out. There was a small gap in the wall in front of me, but there was no telling what was on the other side. If I ran through there, then I might get trapped within the flames. I took the chance, and dove through the gap.

There weren't anymore flames on the other side. It was all wide open for me. I sped up and dodged around trees and vines. I jumped over a large root that was sticking out from the ground just as it became a victim to the fire. The fire was right next to me, and I could feel the heat swiping at me, wanting me to burn along with everything else.

I moved up the hillside a little more so I didn't get engulfed by the fire. If only I could run up the hill instead of running along side it. Then, I might have stood a better chance. I couldn't tell what part of the pack's territory I was running through.

Between the smoke and flames, everything looked different. Trees were no longer in their same places, limbs no longer held their crooked shapes. All of it had been changed. I thought I had heard the howl of a wolf, but it was hard to tell with the roar and crackle of the flames that were nipped at my heels.

I glanced up and saw that the fire had reached up higher that the treetops, and was now touching the sky. During my moment of distraction, I felt the ground vanish from under me. My paw had caught in a hole, throwing me off of my balance.

I was pretty sure that I heard something snap, but I didn't know if it was the fire or my paw. I rolled down the slope like before, except I landed right into the fire this time.

_Alice_

I couldn't have thought that the day would have gone anymore downhill after the news of that photographer guy got mauled. And it didn't seem like it would. The day went on normal afterwards; Runo and Dan argued, Murucho worked on his laptop, and Julie was fretting over next season's fashions.

All while I sat quietly. I knew they were all wondering about where Shun was; they were just trying to keep themselves busy and their minds off of it. I didn't have anything to keep myself occupied, so all I could do was worry. Shun could have just as easily been the guy who had been killed if he had wandered into the woods. I just wished he would call us and say he was okay.

He didn't have to tell us where he was, or who he may have been with; if anybody. I would have been content with just knowing that all was well. Anything could have happened to him after he ran off that other night. Especially out in that storm. Where could he have gone though?

It would have to be somewhere that wouldn't reveal to us where he was. But where was that? We were really the only ones who knew he was back; the rest of the city didn't know. They all still thought that he was missing. As far as we knew.

The police could have called off the search by know, which they probably had. But I was sure there was somebody out there that thought we were still looking for Shun. And we were still looking for Shun….Again. The rest of the day stayed quiet, and it was already night outside.

I had gone ahead and jumped in the shower before I went to bed. I wrapped myself up in my shower robe when I stepped out, and grabbed a towel to dry my hair. The robe showed some of my shoulder, and I could still see small red marks from where Shun pinned me down.

I pulled the robe over them. I didn't hate Shun for that. If I knew why he had lost it, then it would make so much more sense. I sighed, and walked to my room so I could change into my nightclothes. I flipped on my lamp, and something caught my eye outside.

I looked through the glass, and saw several flickering, orange dots far in the park. Then, the forest was illuminated with a blaze. I looked around for my room, and found my cellphone. I punched in 911, and waited for somebody to pick up.

_Shun_

My back landed square into the fire, and I let out a yelp. I could feel the fire burning my skin, and I jolted up from the pain. I jumped away from the fire, and my front paw gave out from under me. I fell forward to the ground, and saw that my paw was bent in a way that it shouldn't have been.

It had broken when I stepped in the hole. Escaping from the fire had just gotten harder. And not even to mention the burns on my back that was only adding to the pain. I stood up, keeping the weight on my three good legs. I looked around, and saw that I was now surrounded by flames.

It had spread that quickly while I was down. I let out another hacking cough that was brought on by the smoke. It was getting difficult for me to breathe, and I fell over onto my side to get below the smoke. This couldn't be how I'd go down.

I had beaten all kinds of odds, and there wasn't anyway that I was going to burn to death or suffocate from smoke inhalation. But how was I going to get out of this mess? I was injured, and surrounded by fire. I might as well have been a sitting duck.

I whimpered. I could feel myself starting to fade in and out. A shadowed figure then jumped through the flames and landed in front of me. I couldn't tell if it was a hallucination from the smoke, or if I really was seeing something. My lightheaded mind finally gave out, and the figure vanished along with everything else.

_Shun_

I woke up being dragged along the ground. I was still disoriented, but I knew that I was no longer trapped down in the fire. My body felt limp and tired. Whoever was dragging my body, put me down. No longer did I feel the leafy ground of the forest.

It was now the cold ground of rock. I used my eyes to look around and see where I was at. It looked like a small cave. I found the entrance, and saw smoke floating up into the night sky. Was the fire still ripping apart the forest? My ears perked up, and I saw the shadowed figure walking into the cave. When he got closer, I saw who it was Blair, the pack's Alpha.

The one who had rarely ever left the cave in the ravine. Was that were I was? The ravine? No. I didn't think so. Not with how high up I looked from the mouth of the cave. Blair was holding something in his mouth that was dripping water. He walked around me, and placed it on my back.

It was cold, and felt good on my burns. _"That moss should draw some of the heat out of your wounds."_ I let out a sigh of relief. The water soaked moss was doing just what he had said, which felt wonderful to my scorched back. I asked, _"What's going on down there?"_

Blair was sitting at the entrance of the cave, and turned when I shot him one of our quiet messages that only we could hear. _"Some people set the forest on fire. Now they're trying to put it out before it eats away at the other half of the forest."_ I wondered how much of the forest was destroyed.

When I was down there, a lot of the woods had been burned. Blair lumbered back over to me, and put more of the water soaked moss on my back. I asked him, _"Where are the others from the pack?"_ He pointed outside of the cave with his nose. _"They're back in the ravine. Don't worry. They're all safe. There isn't anything down there that can burn."_

I didn't care if they were okay or not. I just didn't want to confront them. But how had Blair known that I was in the woods and trapped in the fire? Had Cynthia gone against my threat and told them I was in the area? Blair made his way back to the mouth of the cave.

_"Stay here until you've healed up more and shift back. Because there's no way that you're going to walk on that injured foot."_ I looked down at my broken paw. When I shifted back, it would become my hand. Making it a broken wrist. I nodded so Blair would know that I understood.

He nodded himself and walked out of the cave. When, and if, I shifted back I'd probably go to a hospital to have something done to my wounds. But what if people down in the city were looking for me again? Surely they'd turn me into the police when they saw me.

I sighed and shut my eyes for some sleep. When they opened back up, I saw snow falling outside the mouth of the cave. I pushed myself up, and looked down at myself. I had shifted sometime during the night. The back of my shirt was singed almost completely off of me.

I didn't dare want to know how my back looked. The moss that Blair had given to me had fallen off, and lost all of the water that it was soaked in. I looked down at my wrist. I couldn't move it without causing myself serious pain. I made myself get up to my feet, and lumbered to the mouth of the cave.

I gasped when I saw the forest below me. I was in a cave near the very top of the hillside. The forest was almost completely charred away except for around the top of the hill where I was at. The snow that was falling made it look like the ashes that were on the ground.

It was starting to cover up the blackened ground, but there was no way that it'd cover up the burned trees. The forest was barren before because of the winter, now it didn't even seem to exist. And there was no longer anywhere to hide.

That was just what the people who burned it down intended for it to do. To leave us with nowhere to hide. I looked up at the sky and saw the faint outline of the moon through the gray clouds. It was almost full, which mean that the hunt would be here any day. _And we have nowhere to hide._

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><p><em>chapter title based off of the song Through The Fire And Flames by DragonForce.<em> HAPPY PRESIDENT'S DAY! lol. i'm not complaining about it since i don't have to go to school -dances- read, review, and other things. ~Copperpelt~


	27. Rise From The Ashes

_Alice_

By the time somebody from the emergency line did pick up, I saw that almost half of the forest had caught fire. I paced back and forth in my room as I waited to be connected to somebody from the fire department. I was sure the others had seen the fire as well.

How could they not see the forty foot tall flames? When a person finally answered, I felt a rush of relief. I told the woman on the other end of the line what the problem was, and she informed me that they were getting floods of calls about the fire. _That explains why it took them so long to get to my call._

She assured me that help was on the way to put out the fire. I hung up, and felt somewhat better knowing that it would be stopped. But how much more of the forest would be consumed? Half of it was already burned away.

It would take the fire department several minutes to get to the location and even start to extinguish the fire. And while they were trying to do that, the flames would be crawling further up. I leaned against my window, and watched as the orange flames burned higher and higher.

This was intentionally done to run the wolves out. It had to be. Either that, or a group of drunks had decided to play with fire. But the theory about them trying to burn the wolves out made more sense. Especially after that photographer guy was ripped apart.

Down in the streets below, fire engines flew by and towards the woods. At the rate they were going, they'd be lucky if any of the forest was left.

The longer I stared in the direction of the fire, I began to imagine the wolves running away from the blaze. Wasn't it enough that they were going to be hunting them in a couple of days? I wondered if that black wolf was caught in the fire as well. He probably was.

As far as the fire had spread, it was a safe bet that not much had escaped without getting burned. There was a droning sound that cut through the walls of my room in the mansion. I looked up in the window and saw a plane fly by. It was headed towards the fire.

When the plane flew over the flames, it dropped down something that looked like a dust or mist. The fire immediately went down. They fire department had apparently called in one of the planes that were used to contain wildfires.

Several more planes flew to help put out the fire. It seemed to be working, but they'd be there for a while. It was hard to tell what was smoke, and what was clouds. I sighed and could tell that it would be a long night for everyone; the fire department, the wolves, and even me.

I sat down on my bed and could see the walls of my room were slightly lit up from the fire that was at least a mile away. _I have to go and check out that forest tomorrow. I won't be able to relax if I don't._

_Alice_

The world was gray and lifeless that morning. It was even enough to put me in a gloomy mood. Last night, I had decided that I would go into the forest and see what had been done by the fire. Considering they'd let me in. For all I knew, the police could have it blocked off to keep people out until the hunt, which was tomorrow if I remembered right. _Can't believe it's happening already._

I got out of my warm bed and walked over to my window. Snow was falling, signaling that I'd need a jacket when I went out. My eyes went towards the direction of the forest. It looked like it was mixed with blacks and grays; all of the life seemed to be gone from it.

Even though it looked dead because of the winter, at least it had more gusto than it did now. Thin wisps of smoke still drifted from the trees that were retaining some of the heat. I pulled on my jacket and found the others. I told them a little lie about where I was going, and they bought it easily.

None of them would ever had expected that I was doing something like going into the wolf filled forest that had just been scorched. I grabbed the attention of taxi cab, and had him drive me a couple of blocks from where the park was. He dropped me off, and I paid him the cab fee.

He then went on his way. I walked on down the sidewalk, and came to the entrance to the park. There were remnants of police tape that had been torn down and discarded to the grass. I picked several of the yellow, plastic ribbons up and threw them away.

Even the park was empty and abandoned. Then again, people had become too afraid to go to the park because of the wolves. Parents had a fear that there kid would get attacked like the three year old. I crossed by the swings that were only moving because of the wind.

Snow clung to a blue, plastic slide. I couldn't believe how dead this place looked. There used to always be somebody at the park. Whether it be little kids or joggers. Now between the fear of the wolves and the threat of the poachers, nobody wanted anything to do with it.

I was now at the edge of the woods, or the place where Shun was bitten to be more exact. The underbrush that the gray wolf had hidden in, was now burned into a pile of ash. Around the edge of the trees, the grass that marked where the park began, had turned black.

I glanced back and forth. There wasn't anyone around to tell me that I couldn't go into the forest. I stepped from the charred grass, and into the trees. Ashes flew up when I took a step, but they were slowly being covered by the light snowfall that was drifting in.

The smell of burned trees and leaves filled the air. _This is only going to make the hunt worse._ It was bad enough to think that people were going to kill the wolves because they wanted to, but now they had destroyed the forest; the one place in the city that held any beauty that hadn't been touched by human hands.

I stopped when I spotted something laying in the ashes. When I got closer, I saw that it was a wolf. The fur was singed black and there was exposed flesh that had been burned. I shook my head, and kept on walking. Even though I knew that wasn't the black wolf, I still couldn't handle looking at what kind of agony it had suffered.

How many wolves had been killed during this? What if they had wiped out the whole pack? Then there wouldn't be anything to hunt. I placed my hand on the burned bark of a tree. I had gone further up a hillside, and saw that the fire hadn't completely torched everything up here.

Slowly, I could see that forest was turning back into what it once was. A low growl came from behind me. I froze, and slowly turned around. My heart was pounding in my chest, and it only sped up when I saw what was behind me.

Blending in with the ashy ground, was the gray wolf that I had seen almost as much as the black one. His eyes were the only thing that really stood out against the dead forest. His teeth were bared all the way, and he snarled at me. I noticed that his face and muzzle had burns on them that went all the way up to under his eyes.

It looked like a tree limb that had been on fire may have caught him. He snapped and lunged in my direction. I screamed and turned to run. My foot slipped in the ash, but I quickly caught traction and ran as fast as I could. I could feel the breath of the wolf right behind me, which only made me run faster.

But I knew that I could only run for so long before I got tired, while he could run for however long he wished. Already I was tiring out, but I had put a reasonable distance between me and the wolf. I turned my head around to see if I could spot him, when I felt something, more specifically someone, grab me.

_Shun_

Not feeling up the staying in the cave forever, I walked out and took in a deep breath of air. It made me cough as I took in ash instead of the smell of trees. Around the cave and top of the hillside was untouched by the fire, but that didn't mean that the ashes hadn't made their ways up to the top with the wind.

I cringed with the thought of who all may have been caught in the fire below. There had to be casualties. If there were none, then it was a miracle. But that miracle wouldn't last long with the impending hunt only a day or so away. I walked under two trees that had tilted into the other, making an arch. It was bound to be a sight of beauty during the spring.

While I walked, I kept my wrist held in place to where it didn't hurt as bad. Already, it was swollen and throbbing, but as long as I kept it set it wasn't all that bad. I was just about to turn back to the cave, when a scream echoed from the forest. _That sounded like…Alice?_

I began looking around for whoever screamed. How would be stupid enough to go into the forest after it was set on fire, along with the wolves who were in it? My question was answered when I saw Alice running through the trees. A little ways behind her, was a gray wolf. My eyes narrowed. _Rayden._ He was running her down for whatever reason. Most likely out of his 'instincts.' I slid down the hill, and hide behind a tree.

I couldn't let Rayden see where I had been hiding out. Alice then ran past the tree, and I hook her by her waist and ran with her back up to the cave. Rayden kept on running in the same direction, not even seeing me or Alice. I caught a glimpse of his face though before he went out of my sight.

It looked scarred and burned. _He must have gotten caught in the fire._ Alice was still screaming since she wasn't aware of who had a hold of her. She flailed an arm out, and it hit the burn on my back. My eyes widened, and I bit back a cry. I couldn't afford Rayden hearing us.

I ran into the cave, still holding Alice, and let her go. She was huddled up against the rocky wall and said under her breath, "Don't hurt me. Don't hurt me." Her arms were covering her face, and I saw them shaking. "I'm not going to hurt you. What would that accomplish."

When she heard my voice, she stopped shaking and lowered her arms to her sides. She stared at me with wide eyes, as if I were a ghost. "Shun?" Her voice was in total shock. It was quite obvious that she wasn't expecting to find me in the forest.

Heck, I wasn't expecting it either. She asked, "What are you doing way out here?" I met her gaze and said, "I could ask you the same thing." She sat down on the floor of the cave, and let out a heavy breath. I allowed her time to relax herself from almost getting attacked by Rayden.

I knelt down beside her and asked, "He didn't bite you or anything, did he?" Alice shook her head. "No. You got there just in time." I nodded my head. "Good. So, why were you in the forest anyway?" She dusted away the ash from her shoes and pants.

"I just wanted to see what damage had been done. I saw the fire last night when it started, and knew that it would be bad…..Shun, what happened to your back?" She made me turn around to look at the burns through the hole in my shirt. "It's nothing major. They don't even hurt anymore." I then felt a wave of vertigo hit me, and I almost fell over. I kept my balance though as I remained knelt beside Alice.

She looked me over and said, "Looks like you're dehydrated. You're going to need some water soon. Do you know where any is around here?" I shook my head and glanced at the dry moss laying on the ground. "I'm not sure where it is, but there's some around here somewhere. Listen, you shouldn't go out there by yourself."

I tried to stand up, but she wouldn't let me. "No way. You're staying right there while I go and find you some water."

I tried to stop her, but she cut me off. "I'll be fine. If I run into another wolf, I'll for help or run up a tree. Don't worry about me when you're the one who needs the help."

I blinked at her, and sighed. "Ok. But be careful. There are wolves everywhere around here." She nodded her head and left the cave. _Including me._

* * *

><p>for all the suspense i've put you all through, you should know what's about to happen...or do you? O.o lol. i swear i am SO slow. i'm going to school, and we go by this old club or bar that burned down and guess what the name of it is? Bay City Park. i freaked out and was like "omg it's from bakugan!" XD then i realized that my brothers name is Joe Brown. I swear to you it is. o.o so now he's from bakuagn XP well, enough about my slowness. read, review, and other things. ~Copperpelt~<p> 


	28. The Sparrow And The Wolf

_Alice_

I stepped out of the cave and back into the forest. Of all the places that Shun could have been, I had found him out in the middle of the woods. Well, more like he had found _me_. I stared down through the trees at the path that I was running down in order to get away from the gray wolf who had been chasing after me. I shook myself out of my thoughts. _Stay focused. I have to find Shun some water._

After Shun had saved me, he brought me back up to a cave and almost passed out. When he did that, I noticed the burns on his back; a sign that he had been caught in the fire last night. Running through the flames, along with the burns, had been enough to dehydrate him to the point that he was on the verge of passing out. But why had he been in the woods in the first place?

He knew as well as I did about the wolves that roamed the area. Especially since he was bitten by one about a month ago. Did he think that hiding in the woods would reduce his risk of being found? If it weren't for the fire, then maybe so. But he would have still had to deal with the wolves that lived in the forest. Along with the hunt that was coming up tomorrow.

It bugged me that I couldn't piece any of this together. Next to Dan, I knew more about Shun than anyone else. I was always that one that seemed to be able to pick up on his emotions, or when something wasn't right. Now, it felt like there was a wall put up keeping me from seeing what was troubling him. I stopped walking and sighed. Then, I heard something from up ahead of me.

A faint gurgling noise. _Water._ I ran up to the top of the hill, and found a small stream that couldn't have been more than five feet wide. It vanished further off into the forest. The water seemed crystal clear, and it made me think that maybe it was a run-off from melted snow.

With all the rain we had, I didn't doubt that this was from some of the snow that had dissolved when the water hit it. I stuck my index finger into the water. It was icy cold; good for keeping Shun cool in case he needed some for his burn. I looked around though and felt bewildered.

How was I to get the water back to the cave? I didn't have anything to put it in and carry it back. And my hands wouldn't be able to carry enough or handle the icy temperatures of the water. I stomped my foot to the ground. What was I to do now?

I sat down next to the stream in a little patch of snow that accumulated on the ground all around me. Part of the grass and leaves could still be seen through the white snow. My eyes then fell onto something that was growing at the base of a tree.

I leaned towards it and brushed it lightly with my fingers. It was moss. Just like the little bunches I had noticed back in the cave. But those had been dried out, while these were full of moisture, which had apparently been absorbed through the ground and from the stream that was a few feet from the tree. I tore off a small piece of the moss, and squeezed it in my hand.

A little bit of water dripped out. Overall, it seemed pretty clean and clear. It didn't look like any dirt was in it. I took my piece of moss, and dipped it into the stream. In my hand, I could feel it swell up with water. I smiled and grabbed several handfuls of the moss, then dipped them into the water as well. I jogged back to the cave, my hands full of waterlogged moss.

When I stepped back into the cave, I saw Shun laying down on his side; being very careful not to let his burned back touch the cave floor. He knew well enough that if those open wounds were exposed to the ground of the cave, he could get an infection.

His eyes were closed, and it looked like he was about to drift off. "Wake up. I found some water." One of his eyes opened, while the other stayed shut. He closed them back, and nodded his head. Water was starting to drip from the moss, and left little wet spots on the ground by my feet.

I knelt down beside him and repeated, "Come on now. Get up." He groaned and said tiredly, "I just want to rest my eyes a few more minutes." I growled in frustration. "You're tired because you're dehydrated. If you drink some water then I guarantee you'll feel better."

Shun sighed and made himself sit upright. "Hold out your hands," I said. He did as I asked. I held the moss over them, and squeezed water into the cup that was made with his hands. I noticed that he was holding his right hand in an odd position, and upon closer inspection I saw that his wrist was broken.

He sipped the water from his hands, and when he ran out, I gave him more. He needed to get hydrated again before his condition got any worse. All over his body were burns and scratches. Not even to mention the severe burns on his back and broken wrist.

He truly was a mess, and it only took him a day or so to get like this. When he left, he was in better shape. Physically. I wasn't so sure about mentally. He had almost drank all of the water that I gathered in the moss, and he was looking much better than when I went out on my hunt for water about an hour ago. He let out a long breath. "Thanks. You were right about the water making me feel better. If only it could have done more for my back."

I looked down at the pieces of moss that had been drained of water to get Shun back to a stable state. I'd have to go back to the stream if it meant getting something to cool down his back. I stuck my hands into my jacket pocket. There was something inside, and I pulled it out.

It was a little travel thing of lotion that Julie gave me cause my hands were too dry for her liking. I hadn't even used any of it. Would lotion even help out with burns? It could provide some relief for a moment, but then what? For all I knew, it could make the wounds worse.

And that was the last thing anyone needed. "Looks like I have some lotion that Julie gave me. It might help your back. I'm not sure since I've never dealt with burns before." Shun stared at the bottle for a moment, then shook his head. "It's fine. I can tolerate the pain. Besides, neither one of us know if that should even be put on burns."

I nodded and put the lotion back away. "Oh well. It was worth a try." Shun was holding his wrist in place, but it still seemed to be uncomfortable for him. Outside of the cave, snow was falling more quickly, and the sky was growing dimmer.

There was no way that I was about to go back out into the forest. Not while it was getting dark, and not after that wolf chased after me. _Great. Now the others are going to worry about me. As if worrying about Shun wasn't enough._ I leaned against the wall of the cave, and looked at Shun.

He saw that I was staring at him and said, "What?" I shook my head and said, "Why here? Of all places, why did you go out here in the middle of the forest?" He suddenly looked tired. "Wish I could tell you. I really do." He grimaced when his wrist moved from its set position.

"Shun, look at yourself. Do you see what keeping this secret has done to you?" He blinked in surprise, and I continued to try and talk some sense into him. "Because you've been hiding something from us, your back is burned to a crisp and your wrist and snapped. When are you not going to take anymore and tell us? At least tell me if you don't want to reside in the others….Shun, you know you can trust me."

_Shun_

I knew it was only a matter of time before she brought this up. She had several good points, but those alone weren't enough to have prevented all of this from happening to me. I would have still shifted, I would have still gone into the forest, and I would have still gotten caught up in the fire and broken my wrist.

All of that was inevitable with no chance of stopping. I knew that I could trust Alice, but I also knew that I couldn't trust her reaction to the truth. She was almost as bad about Murucho in relying in the truth and rational. Hearing that I turned into a wolf would probably tip over the iceberg. I moved over next to her on the other side of the cave.

"I do trust you, Alice. It's just that I can't tell you. If the situation was different, then I probably would. But right now, there's too much on my plate to worry about letting you or the others in on this." She leaned up and fixed her eyes on me.

"Why then? What is so bad that you can't tell me about what's going on? There could be something we could do to help out, but we won't know this unless you tell us." The words she said stung. There wasn't anything they could do to help if I told her or the others what was happening.

I sighed and tried to bit back several swear words. Why couldn't there ever be any easier way for this to happen? I didn't want to say that I wished that hadn't help her, because that would mean that I would have left her at the mercy of Rayden.

And it wouldn't be right if he let her live and allowed her to be subjected to the same torment that plagued me. I said to her, "Alice, as much as I do want to tell you, I just can't. You have to believe me about that." She finally saw that I wasn't about to crack. No matter how much she pried at me to tell her what she wanted to know.

She had her hands tucked away in her jacket. I thought back to when I had halfway controlled my shift, and then attacked her. I took in a shaky breath and said, "I'm sorry. About what happened back at Murucho's before I ran off." She stared back at me with her brown eyes and gave me a sad smile.

She said, "It wasn't really something I was expecting, but I'm not holding a grudge against you for it…" I believed her when she said that she wasn't holding anything against me, but that still didn't get rid of the guilt and self-loathing I felt towards myself.

I should have been able to stop my shift completely, not halfway. That little slip-up made me worry that it could happen again while Alice was around me. What would stop me from attacking and killing her just as I did to that guy that was in the forest?

She then took off her jacket and handed it to me. "What's this for?" I took it from her hands. "You can put it on so you can lean against the wall without worrying about your burns touching anything." I handed it back to her. "You know I can't take this from you. You'll get cold when night finally sets in and you won't have anything to keep you warm."

She pushed the jacket back at me and said, "I insist that you use it. Besides, I'm wearing a long sleeve shirt, which is more than I can say for you since all you have on is a burned shirt. Just use the jacket." I could see that she wasn't going to give in until I accepted her offer.

I smiled and said, "Alright. I know when I'm beat." She smiled back while I carefully put the jacket on me without hurting my burns or wrist. Slowly, I leaned against the wall of the cave and sighed. No longer did I have to hold myself up, and I could finally relax my tensed up muscles. Outside of the cave, the forest had been engulfed with the dark of night.

Alice yawned and scooted over closer to me for warmth. Or at least, that's what I assumed she was doing. I didn't argue, and moved closer to her as well. She laid her head down my shoulder, and fell asleep. I stayed awake for a little while longer, lost in my thoughts.

The hunt was tomorrow, along with the Wolfsbane Moon, which I still knew nothing else about. It could be nothing major for all I knew. But with all of the guns firing tomorrow, how was I going to get Alice out of the forest and back to the others.

And after that, how was I going to get back to the pack and help them out, without Alice following me back. It felt like if I stayed in the cave while the hunt went on, I'd be a coward.

_And Cynthia would be right about me._ What was I going to do? Hide out for the safety of Alice while people got killed? Or take a risk to get her out of the forest and go back and risk my own life for a lost cause?

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><p>hola! lol. the chapter title was actually from a song that i saw, but never listened to. plus, i don't remember the name of the artist. o.o woops. but i like the title and thought that it was a nice use. i also liked writing this chapter. it was really descriptive and i love when i do descriptive chapters. it gives the chapter more flavor to me. XP but then again, what do i know? XD lol. well, read, review, and other things. ~Copperpelt~<p> 


	29. Full Moon

_Shun_

A shot rang throughout the cave, waking up both me and Alice. Both of us were sitting upright and looking around. It soon came to me what was going on when another shot blasted out. Images came to my mind of when I was being chased by poachers, and the dream where I was ran into the ravine. I said quickly, "The hunt." Alice seemed to have caught on when I said those two words.

Several more shots broke the silence that once belonged to the forest. We both jumped up to our feet. I had still yet figured out what I was going to do. It didn't really matter which choice I made; both of them would put Alice at risk. _And me as well._

Alice stepped towards the mouth of the cave and said, "We have to stop them." I grabbed her arm with my good hand and pulled her back from leaving the cave. "Don't you even start to think about going out there. It's too dangerous." She whipped around and looked at me with disbelief. "So you're just going to have us stay in here until they're done killing every wolf in the forest?"

I didn't say anything. It wasn't like I wanted the wolves to die, but I didn't want Alice getting caught up in the crossfire as well. She shook her head. "They're not going to shoot as long as people are in the area….At least, I don't think they will."

Everyone had seen how irrational the poachers were. Not to even mention how the people in the city reacted to the death of the man that I killed. I cringed. Nobody could ever know about that. Ever. But shooting a person didn't seem below the people out there who were shooting people at the moment, and not even realizing it. Alice was trying to walk from the cave again, but I ran in front of her to stop her.

"Alice, don't do something stupid and go out there. I know you want to do something to help and stop this, but trust me. There's not much you can do. Hell, as far as I know, there's nothing I can do either." _There are several things, but they all involve dragging you into this mess….And I don't want that._

Alice stared at me with cold eyes. She must have thought that I didn't give two cents about the wolves. _The only reason I care about them is because they're people. _I could have cared less about them personally. Especially Cynthia or Rayden. Wesley was really the only one I could tolerate, but only because he had helped me understand what was happening to me after my wolf bite.

Alice was still giving me a cold stare. I sighed. "Okay. I'll think up something later, but for right now let's just stay here until the worst of it is over. Does that sound like something you'd agree on?" She thought for a moment, then sighed. "I suppose so." She walked back into the cave and sat down. I knew that she was thinking about what I had said about waiting until the worst of it was over.

The worst of this slaughtering would never be over. Not even after all of the wolves were dead. But I had to tell her something in order to keep her in the cave, and out of the forest where bullets were flying. I sighed and walked closer to her.

"You can hate me all you want, but I'm only trying to keep you safe." She looked up at me and said, "I don't hate you. A little surprised, but I don't hate you." _In other words, you hate me._ I didn't have any other choices to fallback on though. I walked back to the mouth of the cave, and looked up at the sky.

It would be a long time before dusk, which was when I was planning on getting Alice out of the forest and try to help whatever wolves were left alive. And until dusk, I'd have to deal with a pissed off Alice, who would probably give me the silent treatment most of the time.

More shots fired, then they stopped. _They're probably looking for more of the pack._ I sighed and brushed back with my foot some of the snow that had fallen into the cave. Underneath, the ground was damp. I kept scanning the charred trees for any of the pack that may have escaped the initial assault. Nothing.

The woods were as still and quiet as they had been before they were burned. Well, almost. Before the fire, you could hear winter songbirds singing. Now, they were long gone since their nests were burned as well. But there weren't even the sounds of guns firing, or wolves yelping in pain. It was just….Quiet.

_Alice_

I glanced up at Shun. He was staring out of the cave and down at the forest. A light wind blew his hair back, and I saw a quick glimpse of his face. He seemed more lost in thought than I had ever seen him, and there may have even been a flash of sorrow in his eyes.

I was tempted to go over to him and tell him to sit down and relax, but I was still a little fumed up over earlier. I would have thought he'd want to do something in order to stop the hunt, or even delay it. _He was so against it. _I thought back to when he was still in the hospital with a mysterious illness, which still hadn't been diagnosed.

That was where we first heard of the hunt. He was saying how idiotic it was, and how uncalled for it was. Now, he was letting it happen when we had the chance to try and slow its process down. I watched as he kicked snow that came into the cave.

My stomach then growled, reminding me that I hadn't eaten in a while. Shun glanced back at me and said, "Hungry?" I nodded my head and told him, "I'll be fine though. So don't worry about it." There may have been some slight harshness behind my words, but they weren't intended.

He nodded and turned back around to look out at the forest again. How long was he going to have us stay in this cave? Until he felt that the hunt died down? If he was planning that, then it sounded pretty died down now. There hadn't been a shot in hours that I had heard of.

I opened my mouth to say something to him, but closed it and kept my words to myself. _He said that he thought I hated him earlier._ Did I hate him? I hadn't ever hated anyone before, so I didn't know how it felt. But I was pretty sure that I didn't hate Shun for trying to play it safe.

I was still a little mad at him, but there wasn't any hate as far as I knew. If anything, I had been the one who took this a little over the top. By the looks of it outside of the cave, it was starting to creep up on late afternoon. It was hard to tell with the clouds that were still allowing snow to fall.

Shun was still leaning against the entrance of the cave. He also still had on my jacket that I gave him last night as a means of warmth and protection for his back. I stood up, and walked up behind him. He didn't seem to know that I was next to him.

Outside, it was crawling up on dusk. I looked up at the sky and saw that the gray clouds were shaded in a brown or light red color. _How strange._ The snow then stopped, and revealed the moon. It was completely full, and tinted red. I said, "Look at that."

_Shun_

I didn't even know Alice was next to me until she said to look at something. I stared at her, and followed her gaze up at the sky just as the clouds were moving away. Up in the sky, was a full moon that was tinted red. _The Wolfsbane Moon._

I stared up at it with Alice, both of us were awestruck. I had seen it in one of my dreams, but it was nothing compared to the real thing. Then again, the one in my dream was a lot closer to the Earth unlike this one, which was still way up in the air. Alice said, "Wonder why the moon's full."

In everything that I read about this moon, which wasn't much, none of it said why it was red. It probably had something to do with the sun or something like that. But from what I had read, was another story. According to old articles, the Wolfsbane Moon was supposed to turn the wolves into savage killing beasts.

Yet, here I was. Still a human and not ripping apart anything that moved. _Guess we disproved that theory._ But what was so special about this moon? And what link did it have with the wolves, if there was one at all? Seeing the red orb in the sky, made me see that the hunt was truly today.

There was one shot off in the distance, and that's all there was. Odds were that one of the wolves decided to see if the hunters were gone, and walked right into their guns. By the sound of it, they were far off to the East. _I could get Alice out of here without being noticed._

I took her wrist and said, "Come on. I'm going to get you out of the woods." She nodded her head, and allowed me to walk her through the trees. I mentioned several times for her to stay close to me in order to not get lost in the darkening forest. We made it through without being shot at.

I walked her further into the park, and turned back. She asked, "Where are you going?" I glanced back and said, "I have something that I need to take care of." I started to walk off, and she jumped in front of me like I had done to her earlier.

"If you're trying to help those wolves, then you're going to have to take me along with you. Because I want to help them too." _I knew this would happen._ I tried to step around her, but she mimicked my movements, not allowing me past her. "Alice, just go back to the others. I'm sure they're worried about you. I can handle this on my own, and I don't want you getting involved with this and then getting hurt."

A chilling wind blew between us. Her eyes were determined and stubborn. It would take some serious convincing to make her walk away from this. "You're going to get hurt if you follow after me. Please, just go back to Murucho's. I'll make sure that everything is alright. Please. Go."

She stared at me with her brown eyes, as if not sure what to do. "What do you think is going to stop me from going into the woods after you go in there, Shun?" I shook my head. "I don't know. Hopefully I can get through to you and make you walk away before something happens to you."

She bit her bottom lip as she thought this through. "Fine. Go on. I'll head back to Murucho's. But don't think this means that I like this idea." I nodded my head. "I understand." She then walked up to me and placed a kiss on my lips.

I felt my eyes widen in surprise, and slowly I kissed her back. My face felt warm with blush, and when we broke the kiss, I saw that her face was red as well. And it wasn't from the moon above us. "Well, you go do whatever it is you need to. But stay safe, alright?"

I nodded my head and watched her walk off, making sure that she didn't slip behind a tree and hide until I went back to the forest. She didn't hide, and kept on walking. Feeling that she truly wasn't going to follow me, I ran back into the woods. That was when the next round of gunfire exploded.

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><p>chapter title should be self explanatory. XP lol. nothing new to report in the land of my life. so read, review, and other things. ~Copperpelt~<p> 


	30. The Blitz

_Shun_

With every shot that exploded, I ducked behind a tree, fearing that I was their target that they were aiming for. Burned ash from the trees stuck to my clothes and the back of my arms, leaving a black residue behind. My heart was already racing, and it took everything I had to keep myself from shifting, even though I knew it would probably be impossible to achieve something like that.

I dove behind another tree, and heard the bullet whiz past me this time. There was a thud followed shortly after. I peered around the trunk, and saw that one of the pack had been shot. There didn't seem to be anymore of the wolves in area.

Whoever was shot, must have been trying to make a break for it. It was too dark for me to make out their identity though. Out in the distance, were the people who had shot the unknown wolf. It looked like a hunting group of about six or seven, and I knew that this wasn't all there could be out in the woods. Not with all of the gunfire there had been at the start of the day.

They seemed to be going along the hillside like I had done to escape the fire. I stayed hidden behind the tree until I felt that they were further away. Although they were gone, I stayed behind my little tree. What was my game plan going to be?

I had literally gone into this fight with no idea what I was doing. _Nice going._ The air above the forest then sounded like it was being chopped up. When I looked up, I saw red blinking lights, then made out the shape of several helicopters.

They got closer to the tree-line, breaking off the already brittle branches. A spotlight popped on under all the copters, and they began sweeping back and forth across the forest. I watched up at one of the helicopters, and watched as something shot out from the side. Off in the distance, a yelp echoed out in the forest.

Another sweeping spotlight fell on a wolf that was tangled up in the net, unable to break free. The moment the light left him, I ran off in the wolf's direction. When it spotted me, it began to freak out and fight the net even more. Upon closer inspection, I saw that the wolf was Orion.

At first, he didn't recognize me. But when he saw that I was trying to help free him, he figured out who I was and allowed me to work at the net. The next was made out of something that I couldn't break with just my bare hands. I'd need something like I knife to cut this.

I sighed in aggravation, then froze when I saw something on the end of the net. I turned it over, and saw a little blinking light. _A tracking device._ My head shot up and looked around for the hunters that would soon arrive to kill Orion while he was completely defenseless.

Frantically, I tried at the netting again. Useless. I didn't want to leave Orion there for dead. If I did, then I'd truly be a coward like Cynthia had said. But if I stayed and encountered the hunters, then they might shoot me as well because I was interfering with their hunt.

_And they would probably claim that they thought I was a wolf._ I groaned, and looked around, as if my answer would materialize out of the trees. I sat down on the snowy ground next to Orion and stared at the net. There would be no way that I'd live with myself if I left him to the mercy of the hunters.

I then thought of something. It was a stupid and dangerous plan, but it could end up saving Orion. I stopped fighting the adrenaline shift that had built up in me, and allowed my body to turn into that of a wolf. I then took my teeth, and tried to bite through the netting.

Orion whined, and I saw why. The hunters were making their way towards us. Finally, I got the net just right, and Orion burst through the hole I had made. We both ran off before the hunters could get spot us. The two of us were hiding behind a cluster of trees, and I peered around to see the hunters.

They were knelt beside the torn net. One of them said, "Dammit. The thing must have gnawed his way through." Another added in, "It couldn't have gotten far though." I turned my head around and looked at Orion. He was shaking and fear had filled his eyes. _"Orion, run up the hillside and look for a cave near the top. If you find anymore of the pack, take them there as well. You should be safe there." _

Orion stared at me with his dark eyes and said, _"Th-thanks for helping me out."_ I snapped my teeth at him. _"You can thank me later, now get out of here before those hunters find us!"_ He backed up and turned around, then ran off up the hillside. _He should be fine as long as he doesn't run into anymore of those hunters._

I started to make my own way up the hillside, when a large circle of light surrounded me. I looked up, and had to squint my eyes in order to see the large helicopter hovering over me. There was a boom, and I felt the net encase my body, bringing me down to the ground.

_Alice_

I hated allowing Shun to go into those woods on his own, but there was no way that he was about to let me go in there with him. I walked out of the park and down the street. There was a small group of news reporters standing around in front of the park.

They were covering the hunt that was going on. I jogged across the street in order to keep from being attacked by their questions about my opinion on the hunt. That was one topic I didn't want to talk about at the moment. More shots fired, and I flinched with everyone of them.

What if one of them had gotten Shun? My mind flooded itself with questions like that, and I couldn't take it anymore. I ran back towards the park. Whether Shun liked it or not, I was going to help him. Or at least make sure he was alright. _Considering I can find him._

The news reporters didn't even seem to notice me as I rushed past them. And why would they? They all were too busy focusing on the actions taking place behind them. I ran through the gate and back to woods. Above me, several helicopters flew by faster than I was running.

They reached the forest way before me, and they started to shine spotlights on the trees. Were they trying to make finding the wolves easier for the hunters? Seeing those helicopters only made me run faster for some reason. One of the copter's spotlights stopped on a section of the forest, and they shot something out.

Were they called in for an aerial hunt as well? Things only seemed to be getting more insane by the moment. If I didn't know any better, I would have thought that the city was going to war. But no. They were just killing wolves. The helicopters flew back and forth over the forest, shooting whatever it was they were shooting.

I finally reached the forest, and pushed my way through the burned shrubbery and fallen branches. I kept tripping in the dark, and my clothes were catching on briars that had survived the blaze. Whenever a spotlight went by me, I hid behind trees or whatever else I could find.

It just felt like something that Shun would have told me to do. I then started to think, how would I find Shun in all of this chaos? It was a fluke when I ran into him while being chased by that gray wolf, but I felt like my luck may have run out. My foot caught on something, and I fell forward to the ground.

I barely caught myself with my hands. I rolled over and saw that my feet had gotten caught up in some kind of netting. It wasn't like what was used to catch fish; this material was much stronger than fishing nets. At the end where the net came together, was a little device that was flashing.

I raised an eyebrow, unable to figure out what the contraption was. I left the net alone, and went back to searching for Shun. There was a growling up ahead, and I immediately thought that it was the gray wolf that had chased me. That was when I saw the spotlight leave, and caught the last glimpse of what it had illuminated at one point.

It was the black wolf that had been the center point of my thoughts, almost as much as Shun had been. I ran right up to the wolf, not even taking on consideration on whether or not he would bite or attack me. He couldn't do much anyway with that net tangled up around him.

I was able to see him clearly thanks to the red moon that was shining down on the clearing that he had been netted in. The wolf saw me standing on the edge of the clearing. His amber eyes were fixed on mine, and I stared back.

_Shun_

Once I had been caught in the net, I knew why Orion had freaked out. A sense of claustrophobia began to set in from feeling so cramped up. My front paw, which hadn't really been bothering me as long as I kept weight off of it, was now twisted up in the net in the most painful position it could have possibly been in.

There was also not enough room for me to try and bite my way through the net this time. My eyes saw the blinking tracking device. The hunters would be here in a matter of minutes, and then they'd shoot me. I whined as the net dug into the burns on my back.

_At least I won't be in pain for much longer._ Somebody was walking towards me, and I started to try and come to terms with my fate. When she stepped into the clearing, I felt a slight relief. But I also felt a sense of urgency. The hunters would find me soon thanks to the tracking device, and there was no telling what they'd do to Alice.

She stared at me, and I looked back at her. In my mind, I was telling her, _"Alice! What are you doing back here? Get out of here! Now! Before the hunters show up!"_ But I knew all she could hear was me barking. She wasn't a wolf, and couldn't hear our quiet way of communicating.

Alice slowly walked over to me. She showed no signs of caution, which meant that she didn't fear me. _Why would she? I'm tied up in a damn net._ She knelt down beside me, and pulled at the net. Her eyes fell on my back. "Your back is burned." Did she figure out that it was me?

She probably didn't. Even she knew that almost the entire forest had caught fire, so it wouldn't be uncommon to see several burn injuries that were similar. Even if it was on a wolf. "Let me try and get you out of this thing." _Good luck with that, _I tried to tell her.

_It took me biting through this stuff to break it._ My ears picked up the sound of people stomping through the forest. _"Alice! The hunters! Run!" _My words only came out as frantic barks. When was I going to get it through my head that she couldn't understand what I was saying?

I tried to push my way out of the net, but only caused myself more pain and grief. I whined. _She's going to get shot and it's going to be my fault. All my fault._ Alice tried to hold me down. "Be still and calm down. I'm going to get you out of this in one piece. I promise."

Behind her, the small hunting party walked into the clearing. "What the hell do you think you're doing?" She whipped around, and both of us were staring down the barrels of every shotgun they had.

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><p>sorry for being so tardy to the party. we went out to eat when i was halfway done. : oh well. it was good food. XP lol. well, happy weekend! read, review, and other things. ~Copperpelt~


	31. Century Marker

_Shun_

The two of stood there, paralyzed with fear as every barrel of the shotguns were pointed right at us. The hunter in the middle, lowered his gun and stepped forward. "What are you doing with that wolf, little girl?" Alice didn't say anything; she was in too much shock.

The hunter took another step closer to her, and I gave him a warning growl. I wasn't in any position to be making threats. He stopped, and looked down at me. I tried to keep up my intimidation, but the truth of the matter was, I was scared. The hunter started to lift his gun up just as Alice seemed to snap out of her trance. She stepped in front of me. "You're not going to kill anymore of these wolves."

All of the hunters looked at one another, and laughed. The one who had first approached us said, "And what makes you think that you're going to stop us? Look around. We have hunting parties spread out all over this forest. You can't save all of the wolves here. Much less this one."

He dug into his back pocket, and pulled out a little device. It had a screen with a grid map of the forest on it, and about ten blinking dots spread around the map. The hunter said, "These are wolves that we have netted. Now, how do you plan on helping them?"

Ten wolves. All of them trapped and waiting for their killers to arrive and take their lives. And in the name of what? The hunter used the barrel of his gun to point to the side. "Now, little girl, why don't you move over and let us do our job?" I looked up at Alice from the net I was trapped in.

Her hands were shaking with a mix of fear and most likely, adrenaline. She glanced down at me, and back at the hunters. She was looking at her options. We both knew that if she stayed right there, then odds were they'd shoot her as well. But if she moved, then she had a chance of getting out of here in one piece. "_Go. I won't hold anything against you if you do."_

I knew well enough that she couldn't hear my silent voice. I'd understand if she walked away, and I wouldn't hate her for it. In her defense, she didn't know it was me trapped in this net; all she thought I was, was a black wolf that she had seen on several occasions.

The hunter moved his hand, and the others behind him started to raise their guns back up in a shooting stance. He said, "Go on now, little girl. We don't want to have an accident on our hands." These people weren't out in this forest to kill wolves to keep their families and city safe. No.

They were out here just to kill. And it didn't matter to them what they shot. _These are the real monsters that should be disposed of._ There were clicks coming from the guns as they were getting loaded and ready to shoot. Alice still hadn't moved.

Either she was too scared, or she wasn't going to leave. I saw her shut her eyes tightly, as if bracing herself for the shots that were about to be fired at us. _"Alice! Just go!"_ My words turned into barks as I tried to get her to leave. I didn't want to be the reason that both of us ended up dead.

The hunters moved their fingers to the triggers on their guns. I followed Alice's actions and shut my eyes to brace myself for what was about to happen to both of us. I opened one of my eyes, just so I could get one last look at our assailants.

That was when I heard it; the sound of something running this way. Then, Wesley jumped into the opening, and rammed himself into about three of the hunters on my right side. My eyes were wide open, and I saw Cynthia run from my left and do the same thing to those hunters. They all had fallen down like dominos, and several of them accidentally fired their guns into the air.

I heard Wesley say, _"Cynthia! Keep them over there while I get these two!" _Cynthia nodded her head, and kept the hunters too scared to do anything. Wesley ran over to me, and cut the netting like I had done for Orion. I shook off the net remnants and said, _"You showed up just in time, Wesley."_

Both of us were panting, but mine was from staring death in the face, while his was from running to save us. _"It looks that way. Orion saw you get captured, and he ran into me and Cynthia and told us that you needed help. We hurried here as fast as we could."_

Cynthia was losing her control over the hunters. She yelled, _"We need to get out of here. Soon!"_ Wesley nodded his head to Cynthia. He then took off into the woods, and Cynthia left the hunters to follow him. I turned to find Alice, who was still standing in shock.

I ran over to her, and tugged at the bottom on her pant leg. She snapped out of her trance, and looked down to see me. _"You need to get out of here!" _The hunters were starting to get back up on their feet. If they saw that Alice and I had stuck around, they would surely shoot us on site.

_Alice_

Everything had happened so fast. All of a sudden, two wolves had come out from nowhere and attacked the hunters. It didn't seem like they were trying to kill the hunters though. It was more like, they were trying to distract them. I was still stunned from almost being shot at, and from being so close to a possible death.

A brownish-black wolf helped to get the net off of the black one that I had been defending. Had I really been defending him? Or had I been too afraid to move and get out of the way? My mind was too fried to figure that out at the moment.

The two wolves that had jumped the hunters, ran off into the woods. I stayed where I was standing, and tried to make sense of what was happening. I felt something tugging at the bottom of my pants, and I looked down to see the black wolf was still there.

_He didn't leave._ His eyes were pleading at me to leave, to get out of the forest before something happened to me. They looked so much like Shun's eyes, and that was all I could focus on. If all I could have seen were its eyes, then I would have sworn it was Shun and not a wolf.

The hunters behind were starting to regain their composures. No longer were the black wolf's eyes pleading for me to run from the woods. They were now saying, _follow me._ Maybe he knew that I wouldn't stand a chance at running now. He ran off into the woods, and I followed him.

I must have been crazy to have been doing this, but I felt safer with this wolf than I did on my own in the forest. We ran up the hillside, and in the darkness of the night, I saw the cave that Shun had brought me to after saving me from the gray wolf.

Inside of the cave, were five wolves, six when I counted in the black wolf. _Is this all that's left of the wolves?_ I saw the two wolves that attacked the hunters, one that was a dark gray that was almost black, the gray wolf that chased after me, and one in the very back that had the coloring of us Husky.

It was safe to say, that wasn't any domestic house pet. The full force of the night's shock finally hit me, and I passed out.

_Shun_

I turned around just in time to watch Alice collapse. I ran over next to her, and saw that she had passed out. _All of the stress must have caught up with her._ I heard a growl behind me, and saw Rayden was snaking his way towards Alice. I turned around and snapped my jaws at him, and gave him a threatening growl.

_"Back off, Rayden! She's with me."_ He stared at me, then slinked away back in the cave. I stared at the other wolves that were standing in front of me. Overall, there were six of us left; Cynthia, Wesley, Rayden, Orion, Blair, and me. The pack had such large numbers, and I couldn't believe that they had killed off so many of us.

I turned to the leftover pack members and said, _"Can you guys help me get her in the cave so she doesn't freeze?"_ The air's temperature was dropping extremely fast. Wesley and Blair stepped forward. We were able to get Alice onto Blair's back, and he carefully carried her to the mouth of the cave.

We got her down, and laid her down on the ground. Rayden was in the cave still. I turned to face him and said, _"If you so much as come near her, it will be the last thing you ever do."_ He snarled at me; his face was still burned from when he was caught out in the fire several nights ago.

Rayden then lumbered out of the cave. Apparently he was smart enough to see that the last thing we needed was fighting between the pack members that were left. I left Alice in the cave, feeling sure enough that Rayden wasn't going to do anything to her.

I trotted up to Wesley and asked quietly, _"Can I ask you something?"_ He looked at me and said, _"Sure. What is it?"_ I sat down next to him, and finally got the weight off of my injured paw. I still couldn't believe that I had hardly noticed it until now. _'What happened to getting the wolves out of the forest? That was the plan, right? So, why didn't you get them out?" _

Wesley sighed, and his eyes looked guilt stricken and tired. He looked up at the red moon that seemed to be slowly getting closer to the Earth; almost like it was crashing into the atmosphere. _"I wasn't expecting the hunt to start so early in the day….Or the moon to rise so soon."_

His ears laid back against his head, as if he had done something wrong. I asked, _"But what does that have to do with getting the wolves to safety?"_ I wasn't blaming Wesley for the loses of the pack, but I just wanted to know. So much of this might have been avoided if they had gotten the wolves out of the forest.

He kept staring up at the red moon that was in the sky. He said to himself, _"Of all days for this to happen, why today?"_ I shook my head and snapped, _"Wesley! Tell me what the hell you're talking about. What does the moon or anything like that have to do with getting the wolves to shift and out of the forest before the hunt started?"_

He finally looked from the moon to me, and was about to say something before Blair cut him off. _"He's talking about the Wolfsbane Moon."_ Wesley got up and said, _"You're more than welcome to elaborate for him, Blair."_ He then walked off behind the cave.

_"What's his problem?" _Blair shook his head and took Wesley's spot next to me. _"He's blaming himself for this."_ I stared off in the direction that Wesley walked off to. _"I don't see why he's blaming himself. It's not like he could have stopped the hunt, but he could have gotten the wolves out beforehand."_

Blair looked off in front of him and said, _"You really don't know what else is going on, do you?"_ I was starting to grow aggravated. How much of this had I been left out of? _"No, I don't know what's going on. Care to fill me in?"_ Blair looked up at the moon just as Wesley had been doing.

"_The Wolfsbane Moon. It happens one night every hundred years. There have been different stories about what the moon does and what role it plays with the wolves."_ Snow started to fall again. I said, _"Yeah. I've read some of those stories. So, what's the real deal with this thing?"_

I was looking up at the moon now. I could see all of the craters on the surface that was normally a glowing white. Blair continued to speak. _"It has something to do with the position of the moon. I'm not entirely sure. But all I do know, is that it doesn't allow us to shift when it starts to rise."_

I blinked. It didn't allow us to shift? I immediately started to try and change my form, but I found that I couldn't. Blair said, _"Yeah. Surprise."_ I kept trying to shift, and each time I stayed trapped in my wolf form. This was why Wesley wasn't able to get the wolves to shift and move them out of the forest; they weren't able to.

And since the hunt started earlier than he expected, along with the rising of the moon, they were as good as trapped. I asked, _"When are we going to be able to shift again?"_ Because the sooner, would be the better. I felt that only being to save six of us was a small fete, but it was something.

At least not all of the pack would be destroyed. _"We're able to shift back in a small opening of time. When neither the sun or moon are in the sky, that's our opening time. But the moment the sun is in the sky, and if we're still in our wolf bodies, then we're trapped in them. It's a very dangerous time. Seconds determine whether or not we can turn back into humans, or stay this way forever."_

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><p>i know. i know. cliche hundred years thing. forgive me for that. lol. im sorry i didnt upload yesterday. i was out shopping all day for supplies for this stupid project i have due friday of all things. -.- there won't be an upload Tuesday cause I have a Jazz Band concert. -.- well, read, review, and other things. ~Copperpelt~<p> 


	32. The War Inside

_Shun_

Blair stalked off to find Wesley after that, leaving me in front of the cave by myself. _Stuck like this forever._ His words sent an unearthly chill down my back. It was bad enough turning into a wolf, but staying one for the remainder of your life was too much. _I'd sooner die than live like this._

But now I knew what was so special, or not special, about the moon. It was one of those hundred year deals that I only thought were in movies, and now it had come true. There was something to do with the moon that kept us from shifting; we were stuck as wolves.

But from what Blair had told me, there was a short time period that we could change back. Although, if we missed our chance, there would be no way back for us. I was sitting down in the snow that had just stopped falling. Carefully, I lowered my injured paw down into the soft snow, and picked it back up. I examined my print that I left behind. _It might be like that forever._

I brushed the print away, almost like erasing a mistake on a test. I got up, and turned around to face the cave. Alice was still out cold. Quietly, I walked into the cave next to her. She moved a little when I stopped, but she didn't wake. I lowered my head down, and nudged her hand with my nose to see if she'd wake up.

She only rolled over and faced the wall of the cave. I noticed that she was shivering a little, and I laid down on the cave ground next to her. It was more for my own comfort than to try to give her warmth. _If only I hadn't gone into the woods to help those kids. That way I wouldn't be like this._ Yes.

It all came back down to that. It was the kids that were supposed to have gotten bitten by Rayden, not me. If I had just stayed put and not go into the woods, everything would be different. I wouldn't turn into a wolf. I wouldn't have to keep myself calm all the time and inject myself with cortisol to stay human.

And I wouldn't have to cause my friends any worry. There were other things that I wouldn't have ever gotten the chance to know, do, or see though if I hadn't been bitten. I wouldn't have learned the truth about the wolves. I wouldn't have gotten the chance to meet the members of the pack like Lila, Wesley, Orion, or Blair. And I wouldn't have become stronger.

Whether it was for better or worse, this had changed my life and who I was. I could have stayed in that cave next to Alice all night thinking of the pros and cons of being like this, but I knew I couldn't. There were still hunters running around in the forest that knew exactly how many wolves were here, and they weren't going to leave until every last one of us were dead.

_It's not like we can kill them. That would make too much of a backlash on us._ I thought about how the people reacted when they found the dead body of that man that I killed. They had set the forest on fire as a means to run us out and kill us at the same time. My back and Rayden's face were both proof of that.

Alice moved next to me, and made some kind of sound in her unconscious state. Rayden then appeared at the mouth of the cave, and stared at me with narrowed eyes. I suppressed a growl in my throat and said, _"What problem do you have with me, Rayden?"_

His eyes went to Alice, then back at me. _"How is it that I gave up and lost everything I had, and yet, you still have everything of your's. Doesn't seem very fair to me."_ His eyes were back on Alice, and I felt the hairs on the back of my neck stand up on their ends. _"Rayden, I tried to throw everything away. I really did. But it came back to me. I didn't ask for it all to come back, even though I did want it."_

Rayden was now looking back at me, and nothing short of pure hatred was in his eyes. He said coldly, _"We all had to suffer our losses, but you're the only who hasn't."_ I pressed my side into Alice's back, showing Rayden that if he was planning on trying to hurt her that it wouldn't work.

_"You seriously don't think I haven't suffered? I'm pretty sure that I've suffered just as much as any of the wolves here. Maybe even more."_ Rayden snarled and hissed, _"You have not suffered like I have!"_ The burns on his face were now turning into scars that would stay with him forever.

_"And how have you suffered more than any of us, Rayden? Because it seems like you're the one who is always causing the suffering instead of taking it yourself."_ His snarl vanished, and his ears laid back against his head. I had struck a sore nerve when I had gone off on him.

His voice was low and soft, but I could hear what he was saying. _"I thought like you did. About keeping everything I had. Blair tried to tell me that it wouldn't turn out good for anyone, and he was right."_ I kept my guard up; I didn't know if this was an innocent act that he was doing, or if he truly was damaged on the inside.

He stayed outside of the cave, but it looked like he was debating on whether or not to step inside. Rayden then continued. _"You think you have suffered, but you don't know the first thing about suffering."_ I felt offended. Who was he to say whether or not I suffered or not?

I asked harshly, _"And what do you call suffering?"_ Rayden's green eyes narrowed at me, which seemed to have made the air grow thick as suspense built up. He got his next words out quickly. _"You didn't kill the only family you had. I did."_ I felt myself take in a quick sip of air.

This wasn't what I expected him to say. _"You…Killed your family?"_ I knew Rayden was harsh and unpredictable, but even this was out of my range of reality. To think that one of the wolves in the pack had actually killed one of their own family members, was just too out there for me. Rayden was holding his head down low when he said, _"Yeah. I did. It was my little sister. Besides Wesley, she was the only family I had left."_

I stared at him with disbelief. I knew that Rayden didn't have to tell me any of this, but he was. He continued to talk. _"I was the one who had to take care of my sister, and that was why I stuck around with her after I became a wolf. But, I still hadn't learned to control my shifts yet, and-"_

I finished his sentence for him. _"And she got caught in one of them."_ Rayden nodded his head. I remembered how I felt when I killed that man back in the forest. It must have been a much different feeling from killing a complete stranger, than how it feels to take the life of a family member.

I thought about how I felt when I jumped Alice after a failed attempt to stop a shift. What if I had done the same thing to her as Rayden had done to his little sister. I looked at the gray wolf that was still outside of the cave. He seemed to be trying to keep composure over himself.

His whole demeanor changed quickly. _"So don't you dare say you know what suffering feels like! People say they suffer everyday, but they don't know the true meaning of the word or feeling!"_ That was when I finally figured Rayden out. He killed that kid, was trying to attack the kids that I was helping out, and no telling how many other people, all because he wanted their families to suffer like he had when he lost the only family he had.

Rayden was certainly messed up in his mind. He was corrupted by pain and loss, and tried to share it with people who didn't deserve it. _Like me._ I was just another victim of Rayden's delusional mind and thoughts. There wouldn't be any hope of help for him; he was too far off the edge to even think about returning to who he once was.

He was always going to be this way, and he would even end up dying this way. It was sad really. He looked at me, as if waiting for me to say something. What did he expect me to tell him? I'm sorry? I didn't do anything to have the need to apologize.

He sighed and lumbered off in the woods. I laid my head back down. I didn't know if I felt pity for Rayden, or sorrow. Maybe a mixture of the two. Alice moved next to me, which reminded me that she was there.

She sat up and rubbed her eyes. Dirt and tiny rocks clung to her hair and clothes, which started to fall off as gravity worked against them. Her eyes quickly found me, and I waited for her reaction.

_Alice_

When I started to wake, I expected to find myself back at Murucho's. Not in a cave. It took me a moment to remember that I had followed after the black wolf to escape the hunters that were after us. Apparently, we had evaded them for the moment.

I sat up, and felt how stiff my body had gotten from laying on the rocky ground. When I brought my hand down from rubbing my eyes, I felt my fingers brush against something next to me. I looked down to see what it was, and found the black wolf that had led me back here.

The same one that I had been guarding against the hunters, and who had stayed behind after being freed. The same one, who had showed up in my thoughts and out of them. Any normal person would have screamed and ran when they woke up to find a wild animal next to them, but I remained calm.

I didn't know why. There was just something about this wolf that I felt like I could trust. But saying you trusted a wild animal was how many people got killed by one, right? So, you would have thought that I would have put some distance between me and the wolf, right? Wrong.

I stayed right there, meeting his amber gaze right back. I blurted out, "Who are you?" Even that sounded crazy to myself, but I just couldn't shake the feeling that this wasn't _just _a wolf. The wolf tilted his head to the side in confusion. His eyes were saying, _"Do you recognize me?"_

I wanted to say I did, and that this wolf reminded me of Shun. I brought my hand up and touched the scruff of his neck. The last time I had done this, he was behind the dojo and seemed to be too weak to move. The fur was smooth except for the ends that were singed from the fire that was set on the forest.

The wolf didn't seem to mind my touch. The both of us turned to see several of the other wolves looking in the cave. As I stared into their eyes, it was as if all of them started to change before me. Their bodies stayed as wolves, but I saw people inside of them. Just like I had seen Shun in this black wolf. But how?

They couldn't possibly be actual people? Could they? I had heard the tree huggers call them people, but that was because they were trying to say that the wolves had feelings and all of that. But I meant true people who walked on two legs and talked.

The idea was so farfetched that it might have been true. I turned and looked at the black wolf. I stared deeper into his amber wolf eyes, and no matter how I looked at it, I saw Shun from every angle. "Shun? Is this really you?"

The wolf stepped closer to me, and gently placed the end of its nose on my check, a gesture that screamed 'Shun' to me. "It is you. How?" I turned my head around to look at the wolves just in time to hear a gunshot and watched the gray wolf that bit Shun, drop to the ground with a thud.

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><p><em>chapter title based off the song The War Inside by Switchfoot.<em> im sorry for not uploading monday. i have this major project due this week and i needed to get started on it. and tuesday i had a concert and didnt get back till late. i should be back on regular schedule now, so now worries. read, review, and other things. ~Copperpelt~


	33. Grieve

_Shun_

My eyes opened up in surprise when Alice finally saw it was me. I had noticed how she spent so much time looking at me as a wolf, and how hard she seemed to be trying to figure me out. She had also brought up questions about who I was.

I wished that I could tell her, but my words would be muted until I was allowed to shift back. I did the only thing I could think of, and touched her cheek with my nose, and when I back away, I knew that she knew it was me. "How?" was all she could say. She turned to look at the other wolves, as if seeing that they were like me as well. A shot broke the silence, and Rayden dropped.

The rest of the wolves were looking around in panic, unable to figure out if they needed to run or helped Rayden, who was probably dead. They all seemed to have settled on running, because I watched as they started to run off into the woods. I needed to get Alice out of the cave and to safety before they harmed her. I didn't care about myself; it was only Alice that was my priority.

Once she was taken care of and safe, I'd worry about myself. A familiar hunter stepped into the cave, which I easily recognized as the one who had cornered us earlier in the night. He saw Alice and laughed. "Guys, look! It's that girl again." His hunting buddies stopped pursuing the rest of the pack, and walked into the cave to see us.

The light from the bright red moon outside was enough to reveal to them our appearances. Alice and I backed all the way up to the back of the cave. Her back was pressed against the rocky wall, while I was a little bit in front of her. I growled at the hunters, but they weren't intimidated by me.

Not with the numbers they had against me. The same hunter looked at Alice and said with a smile, "Why don't you just leave these wolves alone and let us take good care of them? It seems like you've done a good enough job here, so why not let somebody else take off your burden?"

He took a step closer to us, and I snapped at him. The hunter jumped back, and his eyes narrowed at me in disgust. Faster than I could register, he had lifted up his gun and shot the ground next to me. I jumped back with a yelp, and looked over myself to make sure he hadn't hit me.

They weren't playing around. Not one bit. One of the pack barked from behind the hunters. They turned around, and I caught a glimpse of Cynthia. She was trying to give us a chance to get out of the cave before we were shot like sitting ducks.

But Alice and I still weren't able to get past the hunters without running the risk of taking a bullet. And there was still the problem of trying to get Alice to understand what she needed to do in order to stay safe. Cynthia continued to bark at the hunters, occasionally snapping at them.

They were starting to see that she wasn't going to do anything to them, and began turning their attentions back to us. Cynthia's eyes were darting back and forth between us and the hunters as she tried to think up of another plan to save us. What she did then, was a purely desperate measure.

She lunged at a short hunter, and bit down on the calf of his leg. He cried out, and hit Cynthia in the face with the end of his gun. Alice and I must have been on the same page, because we both took off past the confused hunters as they tried to pry Cynthia off of their friend. _"Over here!"_

I turned towards the voice, and saw Orion standing in the trees. Alice heard his words come out as barks, but she was able to figure out what he was saying. The two of us ran into the trees with Orion. I stopped when I heard several shots behind me.

Cynthia charged out of the cave with all of the hunters right behind her. Well, all but the one that she bit. There was a thin trail of red on the ground from the direction she ran. Either it was the blood of the hunter she attacked, or she had been shot. Maybe even a mix of the two.

Orion's bark brought me back to my senses, and I ran off after them before the hunters spotted me. I already owed Orion and Cynthia my life twice, I didn't want it to be a third time. I caught up with Orion. While we were running, I asked him, _"Is the pack spilt up?"_

Alice was running right behind us, and just barely keeping up. I had to keep reminding myself that she couldn't run the duration that Orion and I could. _"Yeah, the pack is spread out in the forest again. Wesley said that's what we needed to do to increase our chances of making it."_

I nodded my head and kept up a steady pace with Orion. Alice was starting to tire out behind us. I said to him, _"We're going to have to stop so she can catch her breath."_ He nodded and looked ahead of us. We both started to slow down and came to a halt.

Alice stopped running as well, and was bent over, trying to catch her breath before she passed out from exhaustion. I had hardly even begun to tire out, and Orion looked like he could run for another hour without breaking a sweat. My ears twitched, and I turned my head around and examined the area.

I locked in on one of the hunters that had gotten separated from his group. He was tip-toeing through the trees, holding his gun ready to shoot anything that moved. With the brightness of the moon above us, he'd easily spot the three of us resting a few yards away from him.

I whispered to Orion, _"I'm going to lead that hunter away from you and Alice, okay?"_ His eyes were searching the forest until they fell on the hunter. He hadn't even noticed the gun carrying person right in front of us._ "Are you sure you don't want me to get rid of him? I'll do it instead, and you can watch that girl."_

I shook my head. Orion could easily be snuck up on; the hunter next to us was proof of that. If there were more hunters behind this one, then surely they'd have the element of surprise on him and kill him. And I couldn't afford that. Orion was a better fighter than me, and I'd rather have him guarding Alice.

_"I'm sure about this. You stay here with Alice, and I'll lead that hunter away from us and return back as quickly as I can."_ Orion nodded his head, and I started towards the hunter. When I shot past the man, I heard Alice behind me. "Shun! What are you doing!" _Please, Orion. Keep her there._

A bullet ricocheted next to my ear, and I started to run faster. I needed to make a circle around my pursuer without him noticing. Then, I'd retrace my steps back to Orion and Alice. But I didn't take into account that this person could run almost as fast as I could. Bullets were shooting past me left and right.

It would be only a matter of time before he landed a hit on me. I started to run in a slight serpentine pattern. If this hunter was this determined to shoot me, then I was at least going to make it difficult for him to take me down. I wasn't paying attention to how far we had run, until I found myself faced with a frozen lake.

It was the same one that I had spotted Alice from on the other side. Ice was still covering the surface, and it glowed red with the moonlight. The hunter burst through the trees, and in a panic, I ran off onto the frozen lake. My feet slipped under me until I found traction, and even then, it was hard for me to stay standing.

I heard faint cracking sounds under me; the ice was just strong enough to hold my weight, and nothing else. But that realization didn't seem to occur to the hunter. He stepped out onto the ice, occasionally sliding around, but he found balance easier than I had.

"Trying to outsmart me, huh? Well, how is that working out for you?" I saw spider web like cracks starting to form on the ice wherever the man stepped. We needed to get off of the lake before the ice sent us into the water underneath. The man shot next to me, and a small hole was left in the ice by the bullet.

Water began to trickle out and onto the ice. He shot several more times, each time he missed me. But maybe he wasn't aiming for me. No. He was trying to break the ice under me so I'd go into the water. Didn't he see by doing this, he would be taking himself down along with me?

Apparently not. Killing me was the only thing he was focusing on. _That'll change when he goes under the water and ice._ He shot once more, and that did it. Large chunks of ice broke apart under us. I started running across the ice the moment it began to break apart. I was jumping from platform to platform, and finally landed on the bank of the lake.

"Aah!" I turned around and saw the hunter's hands flailing in the water. He was trying to keep his head above the water, but his body was in shock from the cold temperature. As much as this man deserved what he was getting, I couldn't just allow him to drown. _I'm not going to be responsible for anymore deaths._

I took in a breath of air, and jumped into the water. I was temporarily stunned by the icy water, but fought through it and started to swim towards the man. I bit the collar of his shirt, and pulled him back to the bank of the lake. He was unconscious, but wouldn't be for much longer.

I saw that his gun was no longer in his possession; he had most likely dropped it in the lake. I was shivering with cold, and it was almost like I could feel the water on my fur starting to freeze in the winter air. I ran back towards where I had left Orion and Alice, considering they were still there.

I ran past the cave, and came to a halt. Wesley was out in the clearing, an easy target for any hunter passing by. He was sitting over Rayden's motionless body. Slowly, I walked into the clearing. _"Wesley, you need to get out of this clearing and into the woods before you get shot."_

He didn't look up at me, and only stayed fixed on the wolf laying in front of him. Rayden's blood had seeped into the thin layer of snow on the ground. It practically matched the red moon that was causing us so my trouble. When I looked closer at Rayden, I saw that his chest was moving.

He was alive, but just barely. Wesley said softly, _"Hang on a little bit longer, Rayden."_ That was when I remembered that Wesley and Rayden were cousins; the last family either of them had. Even if Rayden was completely out of line, Wesley still cared about him.

I should have been getting back to Orion and Alice, but I felt that I was obligated to stay with the two cousins, even if it was just for a moment. I looked at Rayden's blood matted fur, and found his bullet wound. It was a clean shot right through his stomach.

It didn't seem fatal. For the moment. If Rayden didn't get help soon, then he'd surely die in a matter of hours. But he couldn't get this help. He was trapped as a wolf like the rest of us. Wesley was telling his cousin to keep holding on until this all was over. I knew what he meant.

He wasn't referring to the hunt, but rather to the moon. Wesley was planning on getting Rayden to a hospital the moment we could shift again. How would that be? Two? Three hours? More? Less?

I had lost all track of time during the hunt. I left the two of them alone, and hoped that no more hunters would come by and take the life of Wesley while he was grieving over the inevitable loss of his cousin.

I was still dripping water as I retraced my steps back to Orion and Alice. All while I was looking out for hunters, I was praying that they were okay.

I didn't like thinking about walking back to where they were, and finding either one of them dead, but it was a real possibility that they were. If they were, then I would probably be standing over them like Wesley was doing to his half-dead cousin.

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><p>omg i can't believe i hit over the 100 review marks. :D i feel so accomplished but i should be giving all that have reviewed on this story the credit for making it possible. ^^ so, thank you all that have added in your input on this increasingly long story. XP tomorrow is a big big day! (as Effie Trinket would say) i have to go to the school early, and leave for band contest. so, fingers crossed that we do good. :) well, read, review, and other things. ~Copperpelt~<p> 


	34. Our Longest Night

_Shun_

There was a dragging in my steps. Maybe it was from the weight of my tired muscles, or perhaps it was the possibility that Orion and Alice could be hurt. Or even dead. The only image in my mind was of Wesley standing over Rayden. The grisly reality was enough to make me quiver in fear of my own life. Fresh snow crunched under my feet, and I saw that I was leaving behind red footprints.

By the scent, it was Rayden's blood. It appeared that I had stepped in it without realizing it, even though I made sure to stay out of the red pool. His blood was literally on my 'hands.' It wasn't like I had done anything to get Rayden shot, but then, why did I feel like it was my fault? Did I feel sympathy for Wesley, or for Rayden after he told me his story about why he was messed up in the head?

_It's not like I could have done anything to help._ But keeping Alice safe was something I could try to do. I walked back to the spot I had left then. It was abandoned. Where had they gone? Had they been spotted and run from the area? I sniffed at the ground for either one of their scents. Their scents weren't very old, and I didn't pick up any smells of blood. _Good. They're still okay._

But the problem was, that there were so many other scents in the area from both hunters, and wolves. I could easily follow the wrong trail and go in the wrong direction. And time was of the essence now. I locked in on their scent, and followed it through the forest.

The further I went, the stronger it got. But one thing raised a flag for me; the smell of one of the hunters. There was one in the area, that is, if he hadn't already been killed. I doubted that he had, seeing that his scent trail was extremely recent. The only good thing I could find out of this, was that the hunter had gone in the opposite direction from the way Orion and Alice had.

Just to be safe, I hurried through the area quicker. I had come too far to get shot down now, and I wasn't about to run any chances of that happening. Not with Alice's life on the line, along with so much more. In the shadows, I thought I had caught a glimpse of the outline of a wolf.

It disappeared too quickly for me to figure out who it was. It couldn't have been Wesley; he was back at the cave. Rayden was out of the question since he was almost dead. I wasn't sure if Cynthia was still alive or not, since last I saw of her, she was dripping blood.

That only left either Orion or Blair. Either one of them would be a sight for sore eyes, but a part of me was preferring that it be Orion just because I had left Alice with him. I chased after the wolf that I saw. The scent in the air changed from wolf, to human. I skidded to a halt when I saw what I had chased after; another hunter.

I had seen him and mistaken him for one of my pack members. His hand slowly reached for the rifle that was draped over his shoulder by a nylon strap. I followed his movements, and slowly began to back away as he went for his weapon. He said calmly, "Don't run off now. Stay right there."

_Hell no._ _I'm not staying around for you to shoot me. It's not like I'm stupid._ He slid the gun strap off of his shoulder. The moment I saw his finger going for the trigger, I didn't stay another minute. I took off as fast as I had when the last hunter was after me. This one wasn't nearly as fast as the last one that I had outrun, but he was still keeping up with me.

This part of the forest was much more denser, and that became an advantage to me. Easily, I was able to slip through trees and dead underbrush, while the hunter tripped and fell behind me. He'd be much easier to shake off of my trail than the one I saved from the freezing waters of the lake.

When I no longer heard the hunter behind me, I stopped running and caught my breath. It wouldn't be much longer before I ran out of steam and wouldn't be able to outrun these psychos. I hadn't really thought about how many of the hunters were crawling around in the forest, but I was beginning to get a pretty good idea.

Seeing how deep I was in the woods, I figured that Orion wouldn't have ever thought about taking Alice this far in. That would mean that I'd have to go back the way I had just ran from, and hope that the hunter had left to look for wolves someplace else.

Up near the top of the hillside, there was a long howl that started to fill the air. I recognized it as Blair's. He was trying to call the rest of the pack to him so we could regroup. Did he not realize how dangerous that was? Then again, remaining on our own out in a hunter infested forest wasn't much safer either.

I stayed in the denser trees as a means of protection from anymore wolf murderers that might have been searching for us. I slipped through the trees, and ran up the rest of the hill. On the far side of the lake, was Blair. Standing in front of him was Cynthia. And that was it. No Orion or Alice. No Wesley or Rayden. Just Cynthia.

I knew Wesley wasn't going to leave his dying cousin's side. Not until one of them were officially dead. But did this mean that something had happened to Orion and Alice? A sickening feeling started to fill my stomach as I walked closer to Blair.

Cynthia turned around to look at me; her face was bloodied up from when she was hit with the end of a gun. A small bullet wound was in her back hip, but it didn't seem to be causing her any problems. _"You're still alive?"_ I didn't know if her question was supposed to be one of her insults, or if she was truly surprised that I was still breathing.

Cynthia was unreadable like this at times, and in a mass chaos, it was even more difficult to tell her attitude. I didn't answer her, but turned to Blair instead. _"Do you know anything about Orion? Where he might be or anything like that?"_ My voice had so much desperation in it, that I might as well been begging for my own life.

Blair stood tall and proud like always, and I couldn't see a single scratch or mark on him. How had he evaded all of the shots fired from the start of the hunt to now?

Blair shook his head. _"I haven't seen Orion or that girl since we ran after the hunters found us up at the cave. He hasn't even called out to us to let us know where he's at or if he's even alive."_ A lump formed in my throat with the possibility that they had been caught by one of the insane hunters below us.

It was my fault if something happened to them. I had been the one who wanted to run off and get the hunter away from us. If I hadn't left them, then perhaps they wouldn't be missing right now. And maybe, they'd be up here with me, Cynthia, and Blair.

Cynthia sat down and said to Blair, _"What about Wesley? We can't just allow him to stay in the wide open and wait for a hunter to waltz along and shoot him. We have to get him up here with us."_ I had been thinking the same thing, but I had seen how out of sorts Wesley was. It wouldn't be an easy task to pry him away from Rayden. Blair paced back and forth in front of the last of his pack.

_"I'd love to get Wesley to safety, but there's no way to move somebody who's grieving this badly. He has to move on his own. If we interfere, then he could end up losing control over himself and forget who our enemy is in all of this."_ Cynthia didn't seem too impressed with Blair's statement on what we should do with Wesley, but who were we to argue with the Alpha?

She said quietly and bitterly, _"I still don't like the idea of leaving him there for dead."_ Blair didn't seem to hear her. If he had, then he just ignored her blatant insult towards him. I let out a yawn. Not until then had I realized how exhausted I was.

Between all of the running and mental stress caused from trying to stay alive, I was beginning to run on fumes. Blair was watching me as I swayed back and forth and fought the collapse that was trying to bring me down. He said to Cynthia and I, _"How about you two try and get some rest? I'll keep a look out for hunters and any of the pack that's left."_ Cynthia immediately began to protest with him.

_"There's no way that I'm going to sleep as long as Wesley is still down there in the open and a sitting target for those monsters."_ It wasn't like I had the same thoughts as Cynthia, because I did. Wesley was bound to be shot at any given moment, and I didn't want to be sleeping when it happened.

I wanted to be awake, so that way I might be able to try and stop it. But my exhaustion was telling me something entirely different, and I knew it would win the argument. My paws slid slowly out from under me, and I laid down on the cold ground. Cynthia snapped at me, _"You can't seriously be falling asleep."_

When I didn't say anything, she growled and started to walk around the base of a tree. She was mumbling to herself; most likely about mine and Blair's actions. Blair shook his head and looked out over the forest from the top of the hill.

While I was still holding on to my conscious mind, I forced myself to stay awake and alert as much as I could. My mind was a littered mess of thoughts. It was flooded with everything from about Orion and Alice, Wesley, and when the next attack on our dwindling numbers would be.

I moved my eyes so I could look at Blair. His back was facing me, and for the first time, his shoulders were slumped over. Almost like a huge weight was on them that he could no longer support. And of course, there was a weight on him; the weight of knowing that his pack, his family, had all but been brutally murdered unknowingly to the hunters and people that were down in the city.

Blair howled again, trying to get a response out of any of the wolves that may have been left out in the woods. We all knew that Wesley wasn't about to call back; he probably hadn't even heard the Alpha sing his mournful song. Blair howled again and again, and all the answered back was his own echo.

He'd have to stop soon, or run the risk of the hunters following his call. But we were so high up on the hillside, that his howl echoed off of trees and rocks, and even floated out into the city. If the hunters were to try and find us, then they'd have to listen hard to pinpoint us.

As I was slowly losing my fight with exhaustion, I couldn't help but think about where Alice and Orion were. Was Alice safe and Orion dead? Or the other way around? Perhaps both of them were hurt and slowly dying. There was no telling with the wolf hunting 'volunteers' that were out in the forest destroying the balance that once existed.

I hadn't been a part of that balance for very long, but I still knew about it. It was all kinds of demolished now, and would never be the same for anyone. My eyes could no longer hold themselves up, and when they closed I immediately fell into a dream.

I watched helplessly as Orion led Alice through the forest to escape a group of hunters that were after them. I tried to run after them, but I was tied up in a net, unable to move and save them. One of the hunters was getting ready to shoot, and I tried to yell a warning to Orion, but my words were cut off.

That was when I saw that I had been muzzled as well, as if the hunters knew that I'd warn my fellow pack member. The hunter shot, and Orion tumbled into the ground.

Alice squealed, but kept on running. I was flailing around in the net, and tears were staining my eyes. I opened them back up in time to watch Alice vanish into the trees through my blurred vision.

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><p>my apologies for being tardy to the party. i got majorly distracted earlier. it was so bad, that i just lost as inspiration for writing. o.o but thankfully, it's back...at midnight. o.o our band did awesomely at contest today. all superior plus an award for getting all superior at marching contest. so, we did awesome. and now, i shall let you all red, review, and other things. ~Copperpelt~<p> 


	35. The Fire Still Burns

_Shun_

As much as I hated living through that dream, I didn't want to wake up. Waking up, meant that I had to face what reality was handing me. But I woke up anyway. It was kind of difficult to sleep when there were gunshots going off. Had one of those shots possibly been for Orion or Alice?

I hoped not. Blair was still sitting in the same place that he had been when I fell asleep. He glanced down at me and said, _"That must have been some nightmare you were having."_ I stood up, shaking the dirt and snow out of my black fur. _"Yeah. It wasn't one of the most pleasant dreams I've had."_

I padded over next to Blair and sat down. My body was still sore and tired, even though I had gotten some sleep. I asked, _"Any sign of Orion?" _Blair shook his head. His expression was even more sorrowful than before, and that made him look so much older than he probably was.

Cynthia was still over at the same tree, except she was laying down next to it instead of pacing around it. But she wasn't asleep, although it looked like she may have been fighting sleep. I looked up at the reddened sky. The moon was now falling behind the horizon, signaling that morning wouldn't be far off.

_And this nightmare will finally end._ It still had a ways to go before neither the moon nor the sun were in the sky. Such a small amount of time would determine whether or not any of us would ever be human again. Below us, I could still see Wesley in the clearing. He was still standing beside Rayden.

From way up on the hillside, I couldn't tell if Rayden was still alive or not. He probably wasn't, and if he was, then it was a miracle. I kept trying to see through the trees, in hopes that I would spot either Orion or Alice. When I couldn't see anything other than trees, a disappointing weight hit me.

I was losing faith that they were still alive. When you looked at the odds, it was a slim chance that both of them had survived the hunters. Off in the trees, I saw one of the hunting parties walking by. They were extremely close to where Wesley and Rayden were, almost like they had been when it was me, Orion, and Alice.

I would run too much of a risk to myself and the remainder of the pack if I ran down there and tried to veer them off course again. Had anyone one of those hunters been the one who may have hurt Orion or Alice? If they had, then what would I do? Would I attack them in revenge, or let them go on their way and live with what they had done? So much had changed, that I didn't even know what I'd do anymore.

Next to me, Blair spoke. _"You see the hunters down there as well?"_ I nodded slowly, feeling more tired than ever. Was this how Blair felt? I was sure he felt much worse than I did. But maybe I was a close second. One of them shot into the trees, causing a flock of returning birds to take off into the discolored sky.

Cynthia lumbered her way over to me and Blair. It was still just the three of us. She stared down at Wesley, hurt and sorrow filling her eyes almost as much as it was filling up Blair's. _"I'm going down there to check on them."_ Blair stood in front of her, blocking her path.

_"Don't go down there. Doing that will only increase the chances of the hunters taking down what's left of us."_ She glared at him and said coldly, _"I don't care anymore, Blair. We're all as good as dead, and you know it. So, what's it matter?"_

Neither Blair or I said anything as Cynthia slid down the hillside and into the clearing. Wesley turned around to look at her, then turned back to Rayden. Cynthia then joined next to him. I turned to Blair and asked, _"Do you really believe that it's all over for us? That we should stop fighting and give in?"_

I hated to sound like I had no more hope, but I didn't. The odds were so stacked up against us. There wasn't anyway out of this situation. When Blair didn't answer my question, I knew that he didn't believe that we stood a chance.

All he was trying to do was keep us safe until we could shift again. That was all he could do. Hell, that was all any of us could do. And now, even that was failing us. I turned to Blair and said solemnly, _"I'm going down there too."_ He sighed and nodded his head.

Now that we all agreed that we had lost this war, there wasn't much point in trying to keep us safe. Even when our door of opportunity was so close. What kind of accomplishment would it be if only four of us shifted, out of the original pack numbers?

I started down the hillside. The snow mixed with the rocks made it a slippery way down, but I eventually got down to the flat area where the clearing was. I walked around the cave and to the clearing, just in time to see Alice run out from the trees.

_Alice_

Once Shun ran off towards this hunter and left me with one of his wolf friends, I didn't know what to do. I felt lost in the forest, even though I did have another wolf-human with me. Would the term for them be werewolves? I made a note to ask Shun if we ever made it out of this mess.

The hunter chased after Shun, and that was the last that I saw of him. I tried running after them, but this wolf that was with me wouldn't allow it. Had Shun told him to keep me here? I remained with the wolf, only because I thought that was what Shun would have wanted me to do.

We stayed in the little cluster of trees, waiting for Shun's return to us. The wolf he left me with, had laid down on the snowy forest ground. I wanted to sit down myself, but I was too anxious from wondering when Shun would be back, or if he was safe. Instead of sitting down, I leaned against the trunk of a tree.

It hadn't even been touched by the forest fire, so I didn't have to worry about getting any ashes or soot on me. Like it would have mattered though, seeing as how dirt covered I was. Leaning against the tree, I was about to fall asleep. That was, until I felt the wolf that was with me tugging at my clothes.

He was trying to get me to move, and I saw why. More of those blasted hunters were moving in our way, and one of them had spotted us. "Hey! Over here! I found one of the wolves!" I ran with the wolf that was with me. Since the trees around in this part of the forest were so close together, neither of us were able to run as fast as we probably could.

Or maybe we were just that tired. The dense trees were useful though, because the hunters had a hard time getting through because of their build and guns. _That's what you all get for being all brawn and no brains._ The wolf and I kept on running, even though the hunters were far behind us. I didn't think that either of us knew where we were going. But did it matter?

The hunters were far behind us, and we were safe for the time being. That's all that was important. We slowed to a stop, both panting from the run. I wondered what Shun would do if he got back to the place he left us. Surely he'd figure out that we ran.

The unknown wolf was looking around, and then barked. I followed his gaze, and saw a little abandoned house. Or maybe a cabin. It was hard to tell from the distance we were at. The wolf started to run for the cabin/house. I called out to him. "Hey! Wait up!"

He went up to the door, and started to scratch at it to get in. I caught up with him and said, "We don't even know whose place this is." There was a shot off in the distance, and quickly reached for the knob. "I'm sure they won't mind if we borrow it."

The wolf stared at me with a quizzical look as my shaky hands tried to open up the door to the cabin. When I finally got it, we both hurried in. I slammed the door shut, and locked the rusty latch. The wolf's claws tapped on the wooden floor. He went over to one of the walls, and used his nose to turn the lights on.

The cabin didn't look so abandoned when the lights flipped on. There were sleeping cots, blankets, and food all in the one roomed building. "Does this…Belong to the wolves?" I reached into one of the boxes and pulled out a bag of dry goods.

There was enough to keep several people fed for a couple of days. Maybe even a week if they rationed it. I stumbled over to one of the cots, and let out a sigh of relief as I finally got my weight off of my legs. This little cabin was a blessing for me at the moment.

But I knew that I couldn't stay in it forever. I needed to get back to Shun, and find out if he was ok or not. I laid the rest of my body down on the cot, and felt like I had just melted. I'd never take laying down for granted again. The wolf did the same thing as he had earlier, except this time he turned off the lights.

My eyes began to droop closed. I saw the wolf sitting next to the door, guarding it in case a hunter came this way. His eyes told me that it was safe to sleep for a little while, so I did. I woke shortly after when I heard the wolf growling at the door.

I jumped up from my cot, and snuck a peek out of the window. Outside, was another hunting party that had brought along a dog to trail wolves, and it was right on our scent. The guns they had looked more like elephant guns compared to the ones the other hunters had.

These had to be the city officials that had volunteered for the hunt. Luckily, I didn't spot Murucho's uncle out of the group. During all of the chaos, I had forgotten about Dan and the others. They hadn't seen me in several nights.

Now, they probably had a search going for me and Shun. Their dog was going straight for the door, and it began to bark and growl when it got there. The wolf ran from the door, to a window in the back. He was showing me a way to get out. I whispered, "But what about you?"

He shook his head. This wolf was going to stay behind in order to give me a chance to get out of the cabin safely. But I didn't have the slightest clue where anything was in the forest. I'd surely get lost in all of the trees. He scratched at the window, telling me to hurry up and leave.

I nodded and forced the old window up. A rush of cold air hit me, but I ignored it and jumped from the window to the ground below. I ran into the trees, pushing branches and limbs out of my way. The barking got louder, and I waited for the shots.

I must have been too focused on getting away, because I didn't hear the shots. I knew that the wolf had to have been shot. Maybe so much fear had flooded me that the world was no longer around me.

Tears were streaming down my face, and I pushed through one last branch. Then, I found myself in the clearing with the cave, being stared at by Shun and the other wolves.

_Shun_

Alice was alive. She was alive and right in front of us. Tears were in her eyes, and her cheeks were red from running. Her hair was messed up from getting snagged in branches and from the wind. I didn't care though. She had survived somehow.

I ran up to her, then noticed that something was missing. Orion. I looked around for him, and Alice must have noticed that I was looking for him. Her face was sad and grim. "Your friend. That wolf that you left me with. He stayed behind so I could get away from a group of hunters."

I felt a pang of sadness. I owed Orion so many debts, and I couldn't ever repay them now. No. I could repay them by trying to keep the last of the pack safe. Alice was alive, which meant that we might just have a chance after all. She was living proof of that.

But I knew that Blair, Cynthia, and Wesley had no faith anymore. I looked up at the top of the hillside. Blair looked surprised to see that Alice was still around. He had been just like me, thinking that she was dead. Maybe seeing her would restore some of his faith as it had done mine.

Maybe, we really did have a chance. I looked up at the moon. It had almost completely vanished beyond the horizon. Only a little while longer, and it would all be over. All of it. I turned and took another look at Rayden. _Some, more than others._

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><p><em>chapter title based off the song The Fire Still Burns by DragonForce. <em>aye aye aye. this has been a long sunday, but i'm not complaining about it. two chapters in one day. you'd think i'd fry my brain at this rate. o.o maybe i am cause i cant seem to be able to type worth crap lately. -.-'' maybe i'm just not paying attention. plus, we need a new keyboard. :/ well, i'm off to play pokemon emerald because my boyfriend is making me want to play it. o.o read, review, and other things. ~Copperpelt~


	36. Hope And Change

_Shun_

Behind me in the cave, came the low moans of the hunter that Cynthia bit in the back of the leg as a last ditch effort to save Alice and I. He was rolling around on the ground, clutching his calf muscle that was still dripping blood. There was no worry about him ever turning into a wolf, not with the way that he was bleeding. It looked like Cynthia had hit a major artery with all of the blood that was pooled around in the cave.

That hunter wasn't long for this world anymore. Maybe this was karma paying him a visit for killing all of the wolves that used to inhabit the forest. He let out another inhuman wail, and the only one who seemed disturbed by it was Alice. She had walked up to Rayden's body with me, but she couldn't stop looking at the hunter every time that he made a sound.

_She has to know that he would have killed both of us if Cynthia hadn't done what she did. They all would have killed us._ But this was different for her. She was watching as her own kind died, the same as we had. It was a safe bet that all of the wolves hated the humans, and it was the same with the humans; they hated us right back. I ignored the dying hunter, and looked back down at Rayden.

Alice followed suit, and was trying to block out the agonizing cries coming from the hunter as he lay dying. The gray wolf in front of us was still clinging on to life, like it was his most precious possession. Which it was. This mass chaos was proof to how easily life could be ripped from anybody; human or not.

Rayden coughed, and it was almost like all of us remembered that he was still alive. Wesley had stuck by his cousin's side ever since he was shot, and Cynthia had joined them not long ago. Only recently had I come down the hillside to do the same, when Alice ran into the clearing.

Blair was still up on the top of the hill, looking down at us with his bright blue eyes. Cynthia looked up at him. She said with a growl, _"Why hasn't he come down here yet? Is he trying to say that he's better than us or something?"_ Wesley kept his head down; he was still messed up because of his cousin's predicament.

I sighed and said to Cynthia, _"He's probably got a lot on his mind right now. I'm sure he'll come around."_ Blair didn't want to see Rayden, because he probably wouldn't be able to handle it. He didn't want to face what had become of his pack, his friends, his family.

On the ground, Rayden coughed again and said, _"No ill feelings…..Right?"_ I stared at him when I figured out that he was directing his words at me. _"What do you mean, Rayden?"_ He gasped in pain when he moved the slightest bit. _"I mean, there won't be any ill feelings because I dragged you into this mess?"_

He was asking if I was holding a grudge against him. At one point, I had been. I had hated Rayden for tearing apart the life I had made for myself. I wanted nothing more than for him to suffer. But that was before he had told me about why he was so messed up, and before he was dying.

Now, pity and sorrow had taken over my feelings of hate towards him. There would be times that I'd blame Rayden for the bad things that would happen to me, but not now. And not for a while. _"No ill feelings."_ Even though none of us could see it, he was surely smiling.

It was a good thing that he was making peace with those who he owed it to. He didn't really say anything else to the others. Was I the only one that he had given problems to? I knew the others had argued with him a lot, but they all had seemed to have pushed that aside.

How could you still be angry at somebody who was dying? It was sad and pitiful watching this. A more peaceful way for him to go would be for us to put him out of his misery. But I knew that none of us had that in us. Not to kill one of our own, even if it would end his suffering.

_You don't know what real suffering is._ Rayden's previous words echoed in my ears. _You're right. I don't,_ I thought quietly to myself. _And I doubt I ever will._ Compared to Rayden's amount of suffering, anything that happened to me wouldn't ever touch it. Not in a million years. Years.

I looked up at the sky, remembering the Wolfsbane Moon that still hung in the air. Almost all of is was gone, and neither the sun nor the moon would be present. Our nightmare was ending, but there was still more that would come. I was sure. How would we explain that the last remaining wolves just vanished, and were replaced by the same number of people.

Next to me, Wesley whispered to his cousin, _"Try and shift back. That way we can take you to a hospital. Get you some help."_ Wesley knew just as well as the rest of us, that Rayden wouldn't last much longer. He'd probably die before we could shift. _Can you blame him for at least keeping hope?_

Because, I knew that I couldn't. I had been on the verge of giving up my hope, and then Alice had made her way back to us unharmed. If she could make it, then surely we could as well. The last little bit of the moon finally vanished, and it felt like a ton of bricks had been lifted off of me.

I thought the weight in my muscles was from running, but it had been effects from the moon holding my body in my wolf form. The others' muscles seemed to loosen up as well. Even above us, I saw Blair let out a sigh of what seemed to be relief.

I felt somewhat normal again. With nothing in the sky to illuminate it, everything began to go to the color of early dusk. The red tinted sky and snow on the ground no longer existed. It was like stepped out from an alien world, and back to our own.

Cynthia looked at our little group of survivors and said, _"If we're going to turn back, we better do it now."_ That was the best suggestion I had heard in a long time. Cynthia was already shifting back, and before I started, I looked up at where Blair was.

His spot was vacant, and he had vanished. Had he shifted back yet? But of course he probably had. Who in their right mind wouldn't? I was just about to shift back, when something zipped past my ear.

_Alice_

I was shocked to see one of the wolves turn into a human. The change didn't look painful, but it didn't seem like the most pleasant things that could happen to somebody. It was a girl, most likely several years older than me. Her muscles were defined, and the cuts from the night were more visible on her now.

She opened her eyes, and they were the same as when she was a wolf. Shun was still a wolf, and looking up the hill at where another had been sitting. That wolf was gone now. Shun stopped looking at where the wolf once sat, and I could see faint changes taking place in him just as the other wolf girl had done.

He stopped though when something flew past him right by his ear. He started to freak out, and searched the trees with his eyes for whatever shot past him. It wasn't a bullet. If it had been, then it would have been much louder.

The girl that had been a wolf not long ago, had snapped from her trance after the mystery object shot in our direction. She then began to shake the wolf that was standing over the gray one. "Wesley, you have to shift back now!"

The wolf only stared blankly ahead, almost like he had completely checked out of his mind. Shun was still scanning for what shot past him. I was curious myself of what the object had been. Whatever it was though, had missed. Which was probably a good thing. The girl kept on shaking the brownish-black wolf, who had still not come out of his trance.

She then looked up at Shun and snapped at him, "What are you waiting for? You need to shift as well!" He kept looking around, and then stared at the wolf girl with a confused look plastered on him. Could he not understand her? They were the same, right?

Shun finally seemed to catch on to the words that were coming from the girl's mouth, and he began to try his change again. Zing. There it was again. Shun stopped changing once more, and now all of us were looking around; me, Shun, the wolf girl, and even the wolf that she was trying to get to change as well.

That was when I found it next to my foot. I carefully picked it up. It looked like the things that you used when you played a game of darts, but there was a fluid floating around in the middle part. Some of the liquid was dripping from the pointed end.

The wolf girl's eyes were wide when she said, "They're trying to tranquilize us." I dropped the tranquilizer dart to the ground, not wanting to hold it in case I accidentally poked myself. Wolf girl was yelling at Shun and the other wolf to shift and hurry out of here.

The one who had been in shock for the longest time, finally complied and changed into a person. I thought I recognized him, but he seemed to be one of those people that you always saw out in public. He looked down at the wolf that was shot.

The guy's eyes still looked sad and cold like they had been when he was a wolf. The girl was tugging at his arm, yelling and commanding him to hurry out of the forest. The guy nodded, and started to run through the trees.

Hopefully he wouldn't be seen by any of the hunters, or whoever had the tranquilizer gun. Wherever that person was, had almost a clear shot of us. Standing out in this opening wasn't a smart thing to do. Now that one of the wolf people were out of the way, the girl was yelling at Shun now.

She was doing the same thing, telling him that he needed to hurry and shift and leave. She turned to me and said, "You need to do the same." I knew I did, but I wasn't about to leave until Shun was back to being Shun. He nodded, and then he finally changed. He was just as cut up as the girl was, and way less bloody than her.

I stared at him. Both shock and surprise had flooded me. He really was a wolf, an actual wolf. I believed it earlier, but I was still skeptical. But now, any doubt that I had was long gone. The girl snapped her fingers in front of me and said, "You two, get out of here now."

Shun quickly asked her, "What about Blair?" It was so good to hear Shun's voice. Not all the barks and growls that I had heard all night. The girl told him, "Don't worry about him, Shun. Blair can hold his own. He always does." Shun nodded his head, then took my wrist in his hand.

He said to me, "Let's hurry out of here." We ran into the trees, Shun still holding onto my hand while the girl kept up with us. I felt something poke me in the back of my leg, and I assumed it was a thorn that had stuck me. So, I kept on running.

Slowly, I began to feel drowsy and stumbled over anything that was in front of me. Shun tugged at my arm and said, "Alice, come on! Keep running." He saw that something wasn't quite right with me. "Alice? What's wrong?" Behind him, the girl was yelling at us to hurry up.

Her voice sounded like she was in a tunnel a million miles away. I reached down in the calf of my leg, and pulled out one of the tranquilizer darts.

All of the liquid was gone from its little holding chamber. I dropped the dart because my hands, along with the rest of my body, went limp. I felt Shun's arms wrap around me so I wouldn't hit the ground.

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><p>well, im at a loss of words. nothing interesting to report today. read, review, and other things. ~Copperpelt~<p> 


	37. Cry Of The Brave

_Shun_

I caught Alice just in time before she hit the ground. Her eyes were glazed over, and she didn't seem aware of where she was. Way behind me, Cynthia had stopped running. "What's wrong with her?" I picked the dart that had hit Alice, and held it up so Cynthia could see.

In an instant, she understood what happened. I was shaking Alice. "Come on. You have to wake up. You can sleep later when we're out of here." She made a noise, but kept her eyes shut. What was in that tranquilizer? Whatever it was, it was strong. I got her up to her feet, but it was quite obvious that she wasn't awake enough to help hold herself up.

My own legs were wobbling underneath me from her weight. _She doesn't look that heavy._ It wasn't that she was heavy, which she was, it was the fact that I had been run to the brink of exhaustion all night and could hardly hold my own self up. I laid her gently back on the ground.

Cynthia came running up to me and snapped, "What are you doing? Pick her up and let's get the hell out of here while we can!" I retorted back at her, "I would, but after tonight I don't have the strength or energy to carry her weight." Cynthia rolled her eyes and threw one of Alice's limp arms over her shoulders. She said to me, "You get her other arm. We'll both carry her out of the forest."

I nodded and mimicked Cynthia's actions. There was a considerable difference now that I was sharing Alice's weight with somebody else. We were moving much slower through the forest as we tried to keep the same speed as we walked. My eyes went to the place where the tranquilizer dart hit Alice's leg. The shooter still had to be in the forest, but where? Had he been in the air?

If he had been, then wouldn't one of our group heard the motor of a helicopter? I couldn't recall ever hearing something like that. The shooter had most likely been in the forest, and still probably was. But why had he shot at people?

Had they seen us shift from wolves to humans? That would make sense as to why they wanted to knock us out instead of shooting us dead. A discovery like this, could make anyone filthy rich. And it wouldn't be of any use to them if their proof was dead.

Cynthia and I were pretty much dragging Alice. Occasionally, I tried to shake her awake. Even if she was just conscious enough to stand on her own, that would have been good enough for me. Next to me, a dart appeared in the tree. I stopped and stared at it, then started to look around for whoever was shooting them.

They had to have known about what we were, or else they wouldn't have been trailing three people through the forest. Cynthia glared and me and hissed, "Why'd you stop? We're almost out of the forest." She shifted Alice's weight on her shoulders.

I shushed her and said, "I think we were followed." Cynthia raised a questionable eyebrow at me. "What gave you that idea?" I pointed to the dart that was stuck in the bark of the tree. "Oh." Now, both of us were looking. The sooner we found our tag-a-long, the better.

That way, we could try and shake him off. But, all I saw were trees. There weren't many places for a person to hide, being that the forest was burned to a barren dust. All anyone could hide behind would be a tree, and even those trees weren't large enough to hide a small child behind.

But what if they hadn't followed us? My eyes went up further to the hillside, and just a little under from where Blair had once sat, I saw the gunman. Just barely though. He was a faint little dot against the trees, but I knew this had to be the person who was shooting at us.

When I squinted my eyes, I recognized him as the man that I had saved from the frozen lake. Could he tell from that distance that we weren't wolves? Or maybe he really had caught a glimpse of us shifting. He was so close to where Blair had been, and I started to wonder if this person had shot the pack's Alpha. Whether with tranquilizer or a bullet.

Either way, it wasn't good for Blair. The man on the hillside appeared to be reloading his tranquilizer gun. Cynthia was still holding Alice up when she asked, "Can we go now before he shoots at us again?" I kept my eyes on the man and said back to her, "You get Alice out of here. I'm going to look around for Blair." I could feel Cynthia's dumbfounded expression looking at me.

"Are you crazy? We're right here at the edge of the woods, and you want to go looking for Blair? I'm sure he's fine, Shun. Now, help me carry this girl." I shook my head. "I'm sure you're right, but I want to know if Blair is safe or not." Cynthia sighed behind me, and I soon heard her footsteps stomping down the hill and out of the woods.

She would be mad at me for a while, but it would be worth her complaining to bring Blair out with us. Besides, after the help that I received from Blair, this was the least I could do for him. Whether he was safe or not. I tried to see the sun, which should have been rising at the time.

I couldn't see it, and that made me believe that it hadn't quite gotten over the horizon yet. Now that I had my timing straight, I turned my attention up at the man who had knocked Alice out with one of his darts. He would be my only obstacle to get around.

He had a clear view of all of the forest from that hillside. And the burned woods weren't giving me much cover either. Alice, Cynthia, and Wesley all should have made their way out of the forest by then, which left only me and possibly Blair.

Something had distracted the gunman above me, and I took advantage of this. While he was turned around, I hurried to more denser trees. I doubted it would make much difference in how much I was or wasn't covered. I at least had a better chance of escaping his sights.

I snuck my way up along the hillside, making sure to stay in the hunter's blind spot. I was now right behind him. He was still looking out into the forest, not even awake of my presence. _And that's how it needs to stay._ I watched my footing as I ran behind the cave to look for Blair.

_Alice_

Being drugged was an understatement. I felt like I had been doped up to no tomorrow. My body was still limp and numb, but I knew that I was being carried. Or, more like dragged. When I stopped moving, I felt my body being laid down against something like a wall.

As the drugs began to wear off, I saw that I was against a wooden and steel bench. No longer was I in the forest, which was the last place that I remembered being before things got all weird. But instead, I was out in the Bay City Park.

The first thing I saw, was the forest in front of me. I looked around, expecting to at least find the person who carried me out. Sitting in the grass next to the bench, was the wolf girl. She was panting and dripping sweat, despite the cold temperatures.

By her appearance, she had been the one who toted me out. Behind me, leaning against a tree trunk, was the other wolf person. The one that I had heard the wolf girl call Wesley if I recalled correctly. He had also been the one standing over the injured wolf back in front of the cave.

I kept looking around, hoping to spot Shun. Last I remembered of him, he had caught me as I blacked out. Now, I didn't see him anywhere. I looked down at the tired wolf girl. "Where's Shun?" She glanced up at me, her shoulders heaving as she tried to regain her breath.

She looked at the forest, telling me silently that was where Shun was at. Had he somehow been knocked out like I had, and this girl left him for dead? She didn't seem like that kind of person. Then why was Shun still in there? Did he not know of the danger we had been fortunate enough to escape from?

Not too far away from us, there was a mob of TV reporters, just like they had been before I went back into the forest after Shun insisted that I not get involved. They probably wouldn't step foot in the forest until somebody told them that all of the wolves were dead.

Then, they'd probably do something like video tape all of the hunters and the wolves that were shot. I thought about them videoing the wolf who helped me out back in the cabin, and cringed at the idea that he truly was dead. A person that I would never know as anything else but a wolf.

I wasn't able to count all of the cameramen that were standing around. How had we snuck past all of them without being questioned why we were in the forest during the hunt? I rubbed the back of my leg where I had been shot with a tranquilizer dart.

I rolled up the leg of my pants, and stared at the red area. There was a small, pin-sized hole in the center of all of the redness. The skin in that area of my leg was still numb as the last of the drugs wore off. I looked above the trees, and saw the very top of the sun beginning to peak above the horizon. It was now dawn.

_Shun_

It was getting brighter and brighter and brighter as time went by. I was back at the lake that I had saved the delusional hunter from. There weren't very many trees around on the other side, and I could see the outline of the sun. _Let's hope that Blair shifted back in time._

I hadn't seen any sign of where the Alpha could have gone too. No tracks in the snow or broken branches that would have suggested that he ran. Everything was just like I had left if after helping that hunter. "Blair," I whispered faintly in case any hunters were around. "Blair."

No answer. I was starting to grow tired of the silence that was building in the forest. After an entire night of hearing gunshots and screams, silence was alien to me now. I placed the palm of my hand on a tree trunk, and leaned against it. It was a nice feeling, having hands and walking on two feet again.

I would have thought that stress and panic built up inside me would have made me shift again, but I guessed that the Wolfsbane Moon probably had something to do with the uncontrolled shifts as well. There was probably a lot about that moon that I wasn't aware of.

But I wouldn't ever have to go through another one, unless I lived to be over a hundred somehow. "Blair," I whispered again. I was walking around the frozen lake; broken platforms of ice were still visible from earlier in the night. _"What are you still doing here?"_

I froze, and whipped around to find a large wolf looking at me. I smiled and blurted out, "Blair." Then, I realized, he was still a wolf. My smile faded. "No. Don't tell me you didn't shift back in time." He shook his head and paced to his right. _"No. I've been like this for a very long time."_

I stared at him, not quite understanding what he was trying to say to me. What had he meant by being like this for a long time. He stared out into the forest and sighed. _"Another moon down."_ I kept staring at him, the words he was speaking not registering in my mind.

"What are you talking about, Blair?" He turned around to face me. _"I'm a lot older than you think. I've been through two Wolfsbane Moons, this will be my third. Seems like each one gets crazier each time."_ Zap. My mind was fried. "Wait, you're telling me that you're 300 years old? How is that even possible?"

This was something that I wasn't expecting. Blair didn't look much older than me. _Then again, I never saw him as a human._ When I thought about it, I had never once seen him shift, and the others never talked about him as a human before. _"My first Wolfsbane Moon, I wasn't lucky enough to shift back. I got trapped like this. But the Moon did something to those of us that got trapped; we lived way beyond what we normally should have."_ I blinked, finally coming to terms with what he was saying

. "So, the Moon gave you something like immortality? In that case, why not give the others in the pack the option? Some of the wolves might have wanted to live for a long time."

Blair shook his head, and his sad expression grew even sadder. _"I try to keep the pack members from being trapped like this, because I don't want them to go through what I did of having to watch so many of my fellow pack die of sickness and old age. That's something none of them should have to witness. Then again, there are hardly any of them left."_

There wasn't much denying that fact, and his views on the 'immortality' were agreeable as well. I know I wouldn't have wanted to sit by and watch Alice or any of the others die while I went on living. It was bad enough watching the pack members that I hardly knew get shot to death.

_"So, I do my best to keep them from falling victim to this curse as well. You still haven't answered my question, Shun. Why are you still putting yourself at risk by being in this forest?"_ I shifted my weight back and forth on my aching feet. "I came back to try and find you. I thought you may have been shot or something."

I could literally see Blair smiling, even though he was still a wolf. _"There's no reason to worry about me. I've been making it over 300 years, and I'm sure I'll make it another 300. You should get out of here before something happens to you though."_ I nodded my head, feeling sure that Blair would hold his own.

He would end up vanishing into the forest, hidden from the last of the hunters' eyes. Just like he always did. I walked back around the cave, shielding my eyes from the sun that was now higher up in the sky. The hunter with the tranquilizer gun was gone now, and I felt as if the forest was at peace again.

As I walked back down the hill to finally leave the forest, somebody came crashing through the trees and rammed into me. I fell to the ground, angered that somebody had knocked me over. When I saw who it was, my eyes widened. Rubbing his head with his hand, was Orion.

"Orion! We all thought you were dead!" He was as cut and scratched up as I was, but covered in twice as many bruises. He looked at me and laughed. "Yeah, I thought I was dead too. That is, till Blair showed up out of nowhere." I blinked. "Blair helped you?"

Orion nodded his head. _So that's where he vanished off to._ "Yeah. I had just made my way out of one of the safe houses, and was being trailed by those hunters when Blair jumped out of nowhere and scared them off. After that, he told me to shift as fast as I could and get out of the forest.

I tried to get him to come with me, but he refused. I don't even know where he's at now." I looked up at the top of the hillside. "I know where Blair's at. Don't worry, he's fine." Orion tilted his head to the side. "You sure?" I smiled and nodded my head, then stood up from the ground.

"Positive. Now, let's take his advice and get out of here. I'm sure Cynthia, Wesley, and Alice will be happy to see you're still with us." Orion laughed and stood up as well. "Yeah. I bet you're right. Because, I know I'd be pretty happy too." Off behind me, I heard Blair's howl.

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><p><em>chapter title based off the song Cry Of The Brave by DragonForce.<em> if you havent been able to tell, i like their songs. o.o sorry for not uploading yesterday. my dad decided, 'hey, let's go on a two mile walk then go to walmart and get back home at 9:30.' yeah. thanks dad. -.-'' well, read, review, and other things. ~Copperpelt~


	38. Separate Paths

_Alice_

The sun was now over the trees and buildings, bringing light to a once dark world. I was still sitting on the bench, the two wolf people were still in their same places. Neither of them had really said a word. I would have thought that they would have at least said something, but they just stayed silent. I didn't bother to make conversation with them. What would I even say anyway?

It wasn't like it was the time for introductions. I sighed, my mind still wanted to know where Shun was. He had stayed behind in the forest, leaving the wolf girl to carry me out to safety. Behind me, the guy leaned up from his tree and stood next to the bench I was sitting on. He was squinting his eyes out in the distance. "Is that? Shun and Orion?"

I perked up when I heard Shun's name, but I wasn't sure who this Orion person was. Perhaps another one of the pack that had survived somehow. But sure enough, Shun and somebody else were walking out of the forest and began to run towards us when they spotted our little group. I jumped up from my bench, and ran after them. I heard the other two running behind me.

They weren't chasing after me, but running to see their comrades that they thought they lost. Shun and I stopped a few feet short of each other. Both of us were panting from the run. He scanned me over with his eyes. "You okay?" I smiled, feeling special that he was concerned about my well-being.

"Yeah. What about you?" He nodded and said, "Never better." The other two were gawking over the guy who had been with Shun when they emerged from the forest. The girl said, "Oh my gosh. Orion, we thought you were dead!" They were attacking him with questions, but smiles were plastered on their faces with each word they spoke.

He turned to look at me and said, "Aren't you going to thank me for saving you?" Their was a smart tone in his voice. "Saving me? I don't think I know you." He laughed and said, "I didn't think you would. I helped you get out of that cabin." My eyes got wider. "You're that wolf?"

He nodded his head, still holding a smile. I still felt slow from the tranquilizer that hadn't cleared out of my system, so it took me a little bit longer to fully register this. Shun must have noticed that I wasn't firing on all cylinders, because he stepped in and gave my muddy mind a break.

"Yeah. He's the one who helped you escape from the cabin. We all thought he was dead after you told us what happened. But as you can see, he's alive." My brain caught on to the short summary better than it had the full story as it happened in real time. I looked at the person who had helped me out and said, "Thanks for saving me back there. I owe you." He laughed and replied, "No big deal."

He was still getting bombed by questions from the other two, and he answered them without hesitation. "Oh, it might be better if I introduce you to them, wouldn't it?" said Shun. I nodded my head, officially tired of trying to keep up with who was who. I learned that the girl was named Cynthia, the previously grieving wolf was Wesley, and the one who saved me was Orion.

Cynthia turned to Shun and said, "Did you find Blair when you went back into the woods?" Shun smiled slightly. It wasn't one of happiness or sadness. More like a neutral state in between the two emotions. "Yeah. He's fine."

Wesley stepped towards him and asked, "Did he at least shift back in time?" Shun's expression stayed the same, but I was sure that there was something that he wasn't telling them.

_Shun_

I hadn't given it much thought to the fact that the others in the pack may not have known about Blair. When Wesley asked if Blair had shifted, it then hit me that they truly didn't know. Only I did. Perhaps more in the pack used to, but now they were dead.

So, what use was that? I told them, "I guess he did. When I ran into him, the sun wasn't up yet. So, maybe he did make it back in time." They bought my lie, but I figured that they would believe anything after the night we just went through. Five. Only five of us made it out.

Or should it be counted as four seeing as Blair was purely a wolf? Off in the woods, the hunting parties were walking out of the trees, and were getting swarmed by reporters that had stayed out all night to wait for this moment. All of us stared at them from a distance.

They had killed people. Blood was still on their hands, and would always be. Pure hate and loathing was beaming from the eyes of Wesley, Cynthia, and Orion. I was sure that it was in mine as well. Wesley's seemed the strongest though. His cousin, Rayden, the last of his family, had died in that forest.

Well, we assumed that he was dead. The condition that we left Rayden in, wasn't a very promising one. A large group of people were moving into the forest behind the reporters and hunters, and I saw them carrying what looked like bags. They were a team that was being sent in to recover the bodies of the wolves.

I didn't know if it was a good or bad thing that the dead wolves were being taken from the forest. Maybe it was because I didn't know what would happen to them afterwards. I'd hate to find out that some of my pack members were stuffed and used as a trophy reminder of this 'accomplishment' of the person who killed them.

My anger bubbled up inside of me, but I knew that I couldn't do anything. Not so soon after we got away from one threat. Last thing I wanted to do was bring our survivors into more trouble. We needed time to recover, and figure out what we would do next.

The body recovery teams were started to move in and out of the forest carrying wolves that were in the bright orange bags. I cringed, and felt as if I were about to explode inside. Cynthia and Wesley had both turned around, not wanting to witness this travesty.

Orion just held his head down and shook it in shame. To my right, Alice said softly, "I wish we could have stopped this." I looked at her, then hooked my arm around her waist and pulled her closer to me. "I do too, but there's nothing we can do about it now. Sadly."

Even though I was angered and saddened about the loss of the pack members, I was happy that Alice was safe. She could have just as easily been an 'accidental' casualty. I turned to the others and said to them, "I'm tired of watching this. Let's get out of here." They nodded their heads in agreement.

Where exactly would we go though? Alice and I could walk back to Murucho's place with open arms. But where did that leave the rest of our group? They gave up their lives in order to keep them safe from the truth. I didn't know if Orion or Cynthia had any family left, but I knew that Wesley didn't.

He had lost the last of his family ties in the massacre. We all walked out of the park, ignoring the hauling of dead wolves and babble of reporters. The whole scene was revolting. It didn't matter if they knew the wolves were people, it was just sickening that somebody could organize something like this.

What could stop a group of people doing the same thing, but to their own kind? On purpose, and knowing what they were doing. Not like killing the wolves, which they thought were just mindless animals that had caused a few problems. All around us, people began to leave their homes.

Most were leaving to go to work, but a lot of them were heading towards the park to see the deceased wolves that were gathered up. I stopped walking, and stared at them down the street. Alice asked me, "What are you doing, Shun?"

I told her, "I want to see how they react to what happened." The others had joined me as well. Would there be cheers now that the 'problem' was eliminated? I watched as the peoples' faces turned from joyous, to guilt-stricken and revolted. When they demanded for the hunt, they weren't thinking straight.

They were only thinking at the moment. Now that they saw the results of what they requested, they no longer wanted it. But this wasn't like a gift that you could return. The damage had been done, and now they were stuck with it. Many of the spectators left and returned back to their homes or cars, but a good number stayed behind and stared in shock.

The human flaw. The actions they take when fueled by anger and rage, and the emotions they feel after the damage has been caused from that rage. I turned around and started walking again. Soon, the others caught up with me. Cynthia said coldly, "You think they liked what they saw?"

I shook my head. "No. They'll regret what they did for several days, then they'll go on. That's how it is." Alice was leaning her head against my arm, her eyes heavy with sleep. Without even noticing it, we had stopped in front of Murucho's mansion.

I faced the people who were like me; they were cut up, and showed the signs of fighting for life. I asked, "What now? It's not like you guys can go back to the woods." Orion cleared his throat and said, "I'm going to pay a visit to my mom." Cynthia looked at him with shocked eyes.

"But she thinks you're dead. You'll have to explain what happened to you." Orion gave a sad smile. "I know, Cynthia. But I don't want to hide anymore. I'm sick of it." Wesley cringed when Orion brought up family. Cynthia sighed and said, "I guess you have a point. Maybe I should pay my old life a visit myself."

Wesley only seemed to hate listening to them even more. He started to walk off. Cynthia said to him, "Wesley? Where are you going?" He stopped, and looked at her from over his shoulder. "Don't know. You all seem to have your places in this world. I guess I'm just going to try and find my own. There really isn't much point in staying around for the pack, seeing as all of it's gone."

He stood there a little bit longer, then continued on his way. Wesley crossed a street, and turned a corner on another street. None of us knew if we'd ever see him again. All I could do was wish him well in finding his place. That's all any of us wanted.

No longer were we like the rest of society. No longer could we hide in the forest from questioning eyes. Our once safe haven was uprooted, along with the rest of our lives. I looked back at Orion and Cynthia. Cynthia stepped forward and stood in front of me.

"Guess this is where we all part ways. Shame there wasn't enough time for all of us to get to know each other." I smiled. "Yeah. What a shame." She rolled her eyes and said back, "You turned out to be a half decent wolf. I'll give you that for credit. See you guys around?"

She looked at Orion, Alice, and I. I smiled and said, "Maybe." Cynthia nodded and walked off in the opposite direction that Wesley had gone off in. Now, only Orion was left. I said, "Is there really any reason for good-byes?" He shrugged his shoulders and said, "Only if you want to make this all emotional."

I shook my head and said, "I believe that I've had enough of that for a while." He laughed and said, "I agree with that." He then looked at Alice. She smiled at him and said, "Thank you again. For helping me out back there." Orion nodded and said, "Anytime. Well, I'm gone. Maybe we'll run into each other again one day."

He waved at us as he walked down the same sidewalk that Cynthia had gone down. When he was out of our sight, I turned to face Alice. She asked me, "What are you going to do, Shun?" I looked back out at the forest that was yards and yards away from us.

I could still see people gathered all around, even though I could see their faces. I told her, "I don't know. I suppose stay here. Maybe find a way to get word out about what really happened in there, without telling about what we are." A light wind blew, and the air smelled of new morning.

Alice took my hand in hers and said, "Whatever you do, I want to be a part of it." I stared down at her in surprise. She had accepted the fact that I was different. Yeah, she may have been a little freaked out at first, but now she had come to terms with it. I smiled. "Thanks."

If she could accept us, then maybe more people could as well. Maybe, we wouldn't have to keep hiding who and what we were. Images of Orion, Wesley, Blair, and Cynthia appeared in my mind. Pretty much, our entire pack had been wiped out. And the remaining numbers had spilt apart.

Blair was the only one left out in the woods, but that was because he couldn't leave them. No longer did our pack exist. The wolves that used to live out in the forest next to Bay City, were nothing more than a distant memory. I stared up at the sun, and sighed.

Alice asked me, "Everything alright?" Things wouldn't be alright for a long time, but I didn't want her to worry. "Yeah. Now, let's go on and try and find a way to explain to the others where we've been." We turned around and crossed the street to enter Murucho's mansion.

Things that happened in the past, would have to stay there until the day they could be revealed to the world. And sometimes, it is for the best to move on to other things.

The door to the mansion opened, and I prepped myself for the future days that were to come. Hopefully, none of them would be like that night. Never again.

* * *

><p>-sighs- finally done. this turned out to be one of the longest stories i have ever done. o.o and it had gotten the most reviews. i feel accomplished. i hope you all enjoyed the ending. i know there are a few questions about how the others would react and all of that, but i didnt feel like going into detail about that.<p>

and i highly doubt there will be a sequel to this. now, for a more serious note. or notes. for those who haven't heard about the Kony2012, i suggest looking into it. it's a movement to stop a rebel leader in Uganda, Africa, who is abducting children and using them as soldiers that kill.

they even kill their own parents. check out the video on youtube for more information about it. the video is kind of long, but it is worth the watch to know what is going on in our world. if you look into it, great. if not, then oh well. i just thought i'd spread the word around. read, review, and other things. ~Copperpelt~


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